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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. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  6. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  7. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. We're almost out of ________________.
  10. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. False peace will not ________________.
  13. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  16. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  17. You don't need to ________________ round.
  18. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  24. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. pop — music
  3. clip — a video
  4. spring — a coil
  5. snap — to click
  6. firm — steady
  7. scale — size or range
  8. spring — the season
  9. pop — soda
  10. scale — for weighing
  11. clip — to cut
  12. last — to go on
  13. last — final
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. snap — to snap out of it
  16. firm — decided
  17. pop — to visit
  18. firm — a company
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. bat — the animal
  21. last — finally
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. scale — in music
  24. spring — of water

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