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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 116 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. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  2. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  3. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  4. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  8. He is an ace ________________.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  13. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  23. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  24. We had a fire ________________ at school today.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. drill — the tool
  4. race — a contest
  5. clip — to cut
  6. clip — a video
  7. wind — moving air
  8. pitcher — in baseball
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. wind — moving air
  12. mine — belonging to me
  13. wound — past of 'wind'
  14. kid — child
  15. race — humankind
  16. clip — for paper
  17. drill — army training
  18. mine — for digging
  19. wound — an injury
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. kid — to tease
  23. race — the arms race
  24. drill — a practice

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