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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. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  3. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  8. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The ________________ took off on time.
  11. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  12. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  21. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  24. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. race — the arms race
  3. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  4. clip — for paper
  5. clip — to cut
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. plane — in geometry
  8. spring — of water
  9. cold — an illness
  10. plane — an aircraft
  11. scale — size or range
  12. kid — to tease
  13. cold — not warm
  14. spring — the season
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. scale — in music
  17. kid — child
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. race — humankind
  21. race — a contest
  22. clip — a video
  23. plane — a tool
  24. scale — for weighing

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