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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. Have you found your soul ________________?
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  7. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  8. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  13. I'll be taking the ________________.
  14. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  17. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  18. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  22. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  23. He is an ace ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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. mate — a partner
  4. bat — the animal
  5. clip — to cut
  6. chest — a box
  7. mate — to breed
  8. mate — a friend
  9. clip — a video
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. chest — of your body
  12. pitcher — a jug
  13. tube — the underground
  14. tube — a container
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. mark — a grade
  17. mark — to pay attention
  18. mark — a trace
  19. clip — for paper
  20. chest — of your body
  21. pitcher — a jug
  22. tube — in a tire
  23. pitcher — in baseball
  24. cold — an illness

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