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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. My mare is ________________ in color.
  4. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  5. It's one o'clock ________________.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  12. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  17. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  22. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  23. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  24. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. cold — not warm
  3. bay — a horse colour
  4. bear — the animal
  5. sharp — exactly
  6. clip — for paper
  7. board — a flat piece
  8. game — a match
  9. bear — the animal
  10. cold — an illness
  11. bay — a part of the sea
  12. bear — to put up with
  13. clip — a video
  14. board — a committee
  15. game — wild animals
  16. game — a kind of play
  17. sharp — clever
  18. clip — to cut
  19. bay — to keep at bay
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. sharp — with an edge
  22. board — to get on
  23. snap — to snap out of it
  24. snap — to speak sharply

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