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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. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  2. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  3. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  4. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  7. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  10. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. There's no middle ________________.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  16. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  19. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  20. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. He is an ace ________________.
  23. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  24. Fill up this ________________ with water.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  2. row — to paddle
  3. ground — the earth
  4. track — to keep track
  5. clip — for paper
  6. wind — moving air
  7. pitcher — a jug
  8. clip — a video
  9. track — a path
  10. row — a quarrel
  11. clip — to cut
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. ground — a position
  14. kid — child
  15. kid — to tease
  16. ground — crushed
  17. cold — not warm
  18. row — a line
  19. wind — to turn a key
  20. wind — moving air
  21. cold — an illness
  22. pitcher — in baseball
  23. track — a song
  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