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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. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  2. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  13. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  14. She's very handy with a ________________.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  18. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  19. He works in a ________________ mill.
  20. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  21. It's one o'clock ________________.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — clever
  2. snap — to snap out of it
  3. chest — of your body
  4. row — a line
  5. clip — a video
  6. object — a thing
  7. row — to paddle
  8. game — a match
  9. clip — for paper
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. clip — to cut
  12. snap — to click
  13. snap — to speak sharply
  14. saw — the tool
  15. chest — of your body
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. object — to protest
  18. sharp — with an edge
  19. saw — the tool
  20. object — an aim
  21. sharp — exactly
  22. chest — a box
  23. game — wild animals
  24. saw — past of 'see'

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