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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. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  3. Have you met the new head ________________?
  4. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  5. Don't do anything ________________.
  6. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  7. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  8. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  9. The King held a masked ________________.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  12. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  13. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  14. There's no middle ________________.
  15. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. We're on a ________________ here.
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  20. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  21. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. ball — a great time
  3. coach — a trainer
  4. coach — pulled by horses
  5. rash — hasty
  6. wound — an injury
  7. roll — a list
  8. rash — on the skin
  9. ball — a dance
  10. clip — to cut
  11. ground — the earth
  12. hand — in cards
  13. ground — crushed
  14. ground — a position
  15. coach — a trainer
  16. clip — for paper
  17. roll — on a roll
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. ball — a round shape
  20. roll — a cake
  21. rash — a series
  22. wound — an injury
  23. clip — a video
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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