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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. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  2. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  9. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  12. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. kick — with a leg
  2. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  3. hand — help
  4. spring — the season
  5. stick — a piece of wood
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. kid — to tease
  8. race — humankind
  9. stick — to attach or keep to
  10. wind — moving air
  11. kick — a thrill
  12. stick — a piece of wood
  13. wind — moving air
  14. kick — in football
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. kid — child
  17. race — a contest
  18. spring — of water
  19. hand — in cards
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. race — the arms race
  22. spring — a coil
  23. bat — the animal
  24. bat — for baseball

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