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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. David sat on the ________________.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  5. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  6. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  7. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. There's no middle ________________.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  20. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  21. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  22. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  23. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  24. That was a fun ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. swing — to play on
  2. kid — to tease
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. stem — a stem cell
  5. mouse — the animal
  6. stem — of a plant
  7. game — wild animals
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. clip — to cut
  11. clip — a video
  12. bat — the animal
  13. ground — crushed
  14. clip — for paper
  15. mouse — for a computer
  16. kid — child
  17. ground — a position
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. swing — music
  20. stem — to come from
  21. ground — the earth
  22. swing — in golf
  23. mouse — the animal
  24. game — a match

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