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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. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  2. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The tickets are free of ________________.
  9. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  14. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. She's very handy with a ________________.
  20. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  21. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  22. He works in a ________________ mill.
  23. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  24. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?

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

Answer key

  1. kick — a thrill
  2. pitch — completely
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. charge — electricity
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. fan — a supporter
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. charge — a price
  9. saw — past of 'see'
  10. clip — for paper
  11. clip — a video
  12. bat — the animal
  13. fan — to cool the air
  14. pitch — a sales talk
  15. clip — to cut
  16. pitch — a sports field
  17. cold — an illness
  18. cold — not warm
  19. saw — the tool
  20. kick — in football
  21. kick — with a leg
  22. saw — the tool
  23. charge — in control
  24. fan — a supporter

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