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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. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  2. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  6. He works in a ________________ mill.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. She's very handy with a ________________.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  21. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  22. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  23. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. current — electric
  2. row — to paddle
  3. clip — to cut
  4. kid — child
  5. current — happening now
  6. saw — the tool
  7. clip — a video
  8. kid — to tease
  9. row — a line
  10. clip — for paper
  11. field — farmland
  12. band — a rubber band
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. field — for sport
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. saw — the tool
  18. field — a subject
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. current — of water
  21. band — a ring
  22. band — a music group
  23. saw — past of 'see'
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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