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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. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  9. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  10. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.

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

Answer key

  1. object — an aim
  2. shower — to wash
  3. snap — to snap out of it
  4. chest — of your body
  5. object — to protest
  6. land — ground
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. snap — to speak sharply
  9. fork — in a road
  10. fork — a garden tool
  11. clip — a video
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. clip — for paper
  14. capital — a city
  15. snap — to click
  16. land — to come down
  17. chest — a box
  18. fork — to eat with
  19. land — a country
  20. shower — rain
  21. clip — to cut
  22. chest — of your body
  23. capital — money
  24. object — a thing

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