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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 are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  6. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  7. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. My father caught me by the ________________.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  20. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  21. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  22. Where did you ________________ them?
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hide — to keep secret
  2. clip — a video
  3. clip — to cut
  4. field — for sport
  5. hide — to keep secret
  6. arm — a part of something
  7. arm — part of the body
  8. clip — for paper
  9. cold — not warm
  10. cold — an illness
  11. hide — animal skin
  12. field — a subject
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. bat — the animal
  15. arm — part of the body
  16. chest — of your body
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. chest — a box
  19. chest — of your body
  20. mug — a face
  21. mug — a cup
  22. mug — to rob
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. field — farmland

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