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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. That must've been a ________________.
  2. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  3. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  4. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  5. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  9. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  13. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  16. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  17. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  18. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. rush — a thrill
  2. wake — before a funeral
  3. kick — with a leg
  4. scale — size or range
  5. row — to paddle
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. rush — to hurry
  9. capital — a city
  10. clip — to cut
  11. bat — the animal
  12. kick — in football
  13. row — a line
  14. clip — a video
  15. wake — to stop sleeping
  16. kick — a thrill
  17. wake — a trail
  18. scale — in music
  19. clip — for paper
  20. scale — for weighing
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. rush — hurry
  23. capital — money
  24. bat — in an idiom

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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