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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 120 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. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  2. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  3. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  4. It's one o'clock ________________.
  5. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  6. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. I'll be taking the ________________.
  9. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  12. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  15. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  22. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  23. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. pit — a hole
  2. sharp — clever
  3. board — a committee
  4. sharp — exactly
  5. straw — a straw man
  6. board — a flat piece
  7. clip — to cut
  8. tube — the underground
  9. sharp — with an edge
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. pit — in a race
  12. pit — a fruit stone
  13. clip — for paper
  14. tube — a container
  15. board — to get on
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. row — a quarrel
  18. row — to paddle
  19. wound — an injury
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. wound — an injury
  22. tube — in a tire
  23. row — a line
  24. clip — a video

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