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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. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  2. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  15. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  19. Did you ________________ the meat?
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. He's taking a ________________ right now.

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

Answer key

  1. scale — for weighing
  2. season — in sport
  3. spring — the season
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. clip — to cut
  6. hand — help
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. scale — in music
  9. spring — a coil
  10. kid — to tease
  11. clip — a video
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. straw — to clutch at straws
  15. scale — size or range
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. hand — in cards
  18. season — of the year
  19. season — to add flavour
  20. shower — rain
  21. spring — of water
  22. kid — child
  23. clip — for paper
  24. shower — to wash

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