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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. It's one o'clock ________________.
  2. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  8. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  9. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  10. There's no middle ________________.
  11. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  12. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  15. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  16. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  19. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  20. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — exactly
  2. pit — a fruit stone
  3. clip — to cut
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. hand — help
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. ground — crushed
  8. craft — a handicraft
  9. pit — in a race
  10. ground — a position
  11. sharp — clever
  12. ground — the earth
  13. clip — a video
  14. pit — a hole
  15. scale — size or range
  16. craft — a skill
  17. cold — not warm
  18. scale — for weighing
  19. sharp — with an edge
  20. craft — boats
  21. cold — an illness
  22. clip — for paper
  23. hand — in cards
  24. scale — in music

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