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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. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  2. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  3. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  10. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  13. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  14. False peace will not ________________.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  18. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  19. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  23. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  24. Don't do anything ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pit — a fruit stone
  2. cell — in biology
  3. rash — on the skin
  4. clip — for paper
  5. wind — moving air
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. clip — to cut
  8. hand — help
  9. last — final
  10. hand — in cards
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. cell — a phone
  13. pit — a hole
  14. last — to go on
  15. mine — for digging
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. rash — a series
  18. last — finally
  19. wind — moving air
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. clip — a video
  22. pit — in a race
  23. mine — an explosive
  24. rash — hasty

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