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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. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  2. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  3. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  4. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  5. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  8. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  18. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  19. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  23. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — the fish
  2. file — a line of people
  3. hide — animal skin
  4. kick — in football
  5. kick — with a leg
  6. clip — a video
  7. bass — low music
  8. fall — the season
  9. wound — an injury
  10. clip — for paper
  11. hide — to keep secret
  12. clip — to cut
  13. fall — to drop
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. bat — the animal
  16. file — a tool
  17. hide — to keep secret
  18. wound — an injury
  19. fall — to drop
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. bass — the instrument
  23. kick — a thrill
  24. file — a document

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