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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. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. I can't ________________ this cold.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  9. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  10. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  22. The ________________ went through the wall.
  23. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  24. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stand — on your feet
  2. kid — child
  3. clip — to cut
  4. clip — a video
  5. clip — for paper
  6. stand — to bear
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. nail — for a hammer
  9. lean — to bend
  10. lean — to rest against
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. cold — an illness
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. fork — in a road
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. kid — to tease
  17. lean — thin
  18. bat — the animal
  19. nail — on a finger
  20. cold — not warm
  21. fork — a garden tool
  22. nail — for a hammer
  23. fork — to eat with
  24. stand — for spectators

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