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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 ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  4. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  8. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  9. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  10. False peace will not ________________.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  13. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  16. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  17. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  24. The ________________ took off on time.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. snap — to click
  3. plane — a tool
  4. wave — of the sea
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. last — final
  8. snap — to speak sharply
  9. wave — with your hand
  10. last — to go on
  11. clip — for paper
  12. plane — in geometry
  13. capital — money
  14. capital — a city
  15. last — finally
  16. wave — a sudden rise
  17. straw — to clutch at straws
  18. clip — to cut
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. clip — a video
  23. snap — to snap out of it
  24. plane — an aircraft

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