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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. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  5. False peace will not ________________.
  6. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  15. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. last — final
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. race — a contest
  5. last — to go on
  6. last — finally
  7. cold — not warm
  8. stem — a stem cell
  9. clip — to cut
  10. land — a country
  11. land — to come down
  12. stem — to come from
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. race — the arms race
  15. race — humankind
  16. cold — an illness
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. stem — of a plant
  19. clip — a video
  20. land — ground
  21. kid — to tease
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. kid — child
  24. clip — for paper

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