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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. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  3. He is an ace ________________.
  4. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  5. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  23. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  24. How do you ________________ your surname?

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. cue — a signal
  3. pitcher — in baseball
  4. spell — magic
  5. cue — for pool
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. pitcher — a jug
  8. kid — to tease
  9. clip — for paper
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. pitcher — a jug
  14. spell — a short time
  15. clip — to cut
  16. land — a country
  17. kid — child
  18. clip — a video
  19. hand — in cards
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. land — to come down
  22. land — ground
  23. cue — a hint
  24. spell — letters

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