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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  8. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  9. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  10. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  11. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  24. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. land — to come down
  3. land — a country
  4. prune — to trim
  5. clip — for paper
  6. kid — to tease
  7. present — a gift
  8. lash — an eyelash
  9. prune — to trim
  10. land — ground
  11. present — the time now
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. clip — to cut
  14. lash — to lash out
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. snap — to speak sharply
  17. clip — a video
  18. snap — to snap out of it
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. bat — the animal
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. kid — child
  23. present — there
  24. lash — a whip stroke

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