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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. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  3. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  10. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  15. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  19. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  22. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  23. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  24. Don't do anything ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  3. wound — an injury
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. lash — an eyelash
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. kid — child
  8. cold — not warm
  9. capital — money
  10. lash — a whip stroke
  11. clip — for paper
  12. rash — a series
  13. clip — a video
  14. hide — animal skin
  15. kid — to tease
  16. cold — an illness
  17. capital — a city
  18. hide — to keep secret
  19. lash — to lash out
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. wound — an injury
  22. hide — to keep secret
  23. rash — on the skin
  24. rash — hasty

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