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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  4. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. The ________________ went through the wall.
  11. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  14. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  15. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. He is an ace ________________.
  20. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  23. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  24. Fill up this ________________ with water.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. bear — the animal
  4. kick — a thrill
  5. bat — the animal
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. row — to paddle
  8. cold — an illness
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. nail — for a hammer
  11. row — a quarrel
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. kick — with a leg
  14. bear — to put up with
  15. kick — in football
  16. clip — a video
  17. nail — for a hammer
  18. clip — to cut
  19. pitcher — in baseball
  20. nail — on a finger
  21. clip — for paper
  22. row — a line
  23. bear — the animal
  24. pitcher — a jug

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