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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. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  2. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  9. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  12. I'll be taking the ________________.
  13. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  14. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  15. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  23. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. mark — to pay attention
  2. fall — the season
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. mark — a grade
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. clip — for paper
  8. fall — to drop
  9. straw — dry grass
  10. hand — help
  11. fall — to drop
  12. tube — the underground
  13. tube — in a tire
  14. mark — a trace
  15. tube — a container
  16. clip — a video
  17. chip — in a computer
  18. hand — in cards
  19. chip — for betting
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. bat — the animal
  22. bat — in an idiom
  23. chip — to eat
  24. clip — to cut

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