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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  3. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  6. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  7. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  10. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  11. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  12. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  13. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  14. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  15. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  18. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  23. This piece is in a major ________________.
  24. I play ________________ in a jazz band.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. fork — to eat with
  3. key — for a lock
  4. clip — to cut
  5. snap — to click
  6. present — a gift
  7. fork — a garden tool
  8. kid — to tease
  9. snap — to snap out of it
  10. bass — the fish
  11. straw — dry grass
  12. present — there
  13. straw — to clutch at straws
  14. fork — in a road
  15. key — the most important part
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. present — the time now
  18. snap — to speak sharply
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. kid — child
  21. clip — a video
  22. bass — low music
  23. key — in music
  24. bass — the instrument

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