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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  3. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. Did you ________________ the meat?
  6. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  11. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  17. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  18. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  23. The ________________ went through the wall.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. season — in sport
  3. nail — for a hammer
  4. kid — child
  5. season — to add flavour
  6. wound — an injury
  7. kid — to tease
  8. cap — of ice
  9. clip — a video
  10. nail — on a finger
  11. season — of the year
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. wound — an injury
  15. game — a match
  16. game — a kind of play
  17. cap — a lid
  18. game — wild animals
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. cap — a hat
  23. nail — for a hammer
  24. clip — to cut

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