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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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  3. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  4. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  5. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  9. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  12. The King held a masked ________________.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  19. We're on a ________________ here.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  23. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. roll — a list
  3. dip — to dunk
  4. club — a group
  5. dip — a sauce
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. shower — to wash
  8. roll — a cake
  9. club — for golf
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. ball — a round shape
  12. ball — a dance
  13. clip — a video
  14. ball — a great time
  15. march — music
  16. straw — dry grass
  17. shower — rain
  18. club — for dancing
  19. roll — on a roll
  20. clip — for paper
  21. march — the month
  22. dip — to sink
  23. march — the month
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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