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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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. The light ________________ burned out.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. Have you met the new head ________________?
  6. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  7. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  8. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  9. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  10. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  11. Have you found your soul ________________?
  12. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  13. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. I've got to change the light ________________.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  21. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. bulb — for light
  4. clip — for paper
  5. coach — a trainer
  6. wound — an injury
  7. row — a line
  8. row — to paddle
  9. mate — to breed
  10. coach — a trainer
  11. mate — a partner
  12. mate — a friend
  13. wound — past of 'wind'
  14. kid — to tease
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. clip — a video
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. bulb — for light
  19. kid — child
  20. coach — pulled by horses
  21. bulb — of a plant
  22. wound — an injury
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. bat — the animal

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