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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 116 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 ball hit the back of the ________________.
  3. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  4. We're almost out of ________________.
  5. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  8. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  9. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  10. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  11. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  12. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  13. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  16. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  17. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. You don't need to ________________ round.
  20. False peace will not ________________.
  21. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  22. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  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. net — in sport
  3. staff — employees
  4. pop — soda
  5. scale — size or range
  6. clip — for paper
  7. last — finally
  8. shower — to wash
  9. fine — a penalty
  10. scale — in music
  11. scale — for weighing
  12. last — final
  13. staff — a stick
  14. clip — a video
  15. net — after costs
  16. fine — high quality
  17. fine — all right
  18. net — for catching
  19. pop — to visit
  20. last — to go on
  21. staff — employees
  22. pop — music
  23. shower — rain
  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