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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. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  4. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. That was ________________ to happen.
  15. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  16. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to snap out of it
  2. kid — to tease
  3. race — a contest
  4. bound — tied together
  5. clip — a video
  6. bound — obliged
  7. land — a country
  8. snap — to click
  9. clip — for paper
  10. foot — part of the body
  11. land — to come down
  12. race — the arms race
  13. land — ground
  14. bound — certain
  15. foot — the bottom
  16. march — the month
  17. kid — child
  18. race — humankind
  19. clip — to cut
  20. march — music
  21. march — the month
  22. foot — a measure
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. snap — to speak sharply

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