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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. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  5. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  6. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  12. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  13. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  14. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  15. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  16. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. The ball is in your ________________.
  22. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  23. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  24. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.

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

Answer key

  1. object — to protest
  2. land — to come down
  3. cold — not warm
  4. lash — an eyelash
  5. calf — of the leg
  6. calf — a young animal
  7. land — a country
  8. clip — to cut
  9. calf — a young animal
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. object — an aim
  12. cell — in biology
  13. cell — a phone
  14. court — of a king
  15. lash — a whip stroke
  16. land — ground
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. clip — for paper
  19. clip — a video
  20. cold — an illness
  21. court — for sport
  22. object — a thing
  23. court — of law
  24. lash — to lash out

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