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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. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  2. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  3. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  4. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  7. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. There's no middle ________________.
  13. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  16. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  24. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. snap — to speak sharply
  3. fork — a garden tool
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. content — happy
  6. content — the amount
  7. dip — to dunk
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. clip — a video
  10. dip — to sink
  11. wind — moving air
  12. ground — a position
  13. dip — a sauce
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. snap — to click
  16. ground — the earth
  17. mine — for digging
  18. snap — to snap out of it
  19. clip — to cut
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. ground — crushed
  22. clip — for paper
  23. fork — to eat with
  24. fork — in a road

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