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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  4. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  5. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  8. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  9. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  14. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  17. The ________________ took off on time.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  20. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  23. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  24. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. cold — an illness
  3. row — a quarrel
  4. kick — with a leg
  5. scale — for weighing
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. rest — what's left
  8. kick — a thrill
  9. kick — in football
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. clip — to cut
  12. row — a line
  13. plane — a tool
  14. plane — in geometry
  15. cold — not warm
  16. rest — what's left
  17. plane — an aircraft
  18. clip — a video
  19. rest — a break
  20. mine — an explosive
  21. row — to paddle
  22. mine — for digging
  23. scale — size or range
  24. scale — in music

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