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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. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  2. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  3. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  6. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  7. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  10. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. He is an ace ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  21. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. You can't go backstage without a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pass — to succeed
  2. lean — to rest against
  3. lean — thin
  4. cold — not warm
  5. pitcher — a jug
  6. snap — to snap out of it
  7. pitcher — a jug
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. court — of law
  10. snap — to click
  11. court — for sport
  12. clip — a video
  13. clip — to cut
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. pitcher — in baseball
  16. cold — an illness
  17. court — of a king
  18. clip — for paper
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. lean — to bend
  21. pass — to spend time
  22. bat — the animal
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. pass — a permit

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