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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  4. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  13. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  14. My father caught me by the ________________.
  15. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  16. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. hand — in cards
  3. fork — in a road
  4. shower — a meteor shower
  5. clip — to cut
  6. arm — a part of something
  7. clip — a video
  8. fork — a garden tool
  9. shower — to wash
  10. stick — to attach or keep to
  11. cold — not warm
  12. stick — a piece of wood
  13. wax — to grow
  14. arm — part of the body
  15. arm — part of the body
  16. wax — in the ear
  17. hand — help
  18. stick — a piece of wood
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. fork — to eat with
  22. cold — an illness
  23. wax — for sculpting
  24. shower — rain

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com