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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 124 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. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  2. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  8. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  9. Have you met the new head ________________?
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. She's very handy with a ________________.
  12. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  13. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  14. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  15. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  16. The ________________ went through the wall.
  17. He works in a ________________ mill.
  18. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  19. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  20. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  21. It's one o'clock ________________.
  22. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. nail — on a finger
  2. nail — for a hammer
  3. chest — a box
  4. clip — to cut
  5. game — a match
  6. chest — of your body
  7. coach — pulled by horses
  8. game — a kind of play
  9. coach — a trainer
  10. chest — of your body
  11. saw — the tool
  12. sharp — clever
  13. mark — to pay attention
  14. sharp — with an edge
  15. saw — past of 'see'
  16. nail — for a hammer
  17. saw — the tool
  18. mark — a trace
  19. mark — a grade
  20. game — wild animals
  21. sharp — exactly
  22. coach — a trainer
  23. clip — for paper
  24. clip — a video

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