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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 120 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. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. Have you met the new head ________________?
  4. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  5. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  16. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  24. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — part of the body
  2. kid — to tease
  3. coach — a trainer
  4. shower — a meteor shower
  5. bowl — to roll
  6. clip — for paper
  7. coach — a trainer
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. clip — to cut
  10. shower — to wash
  11. degree — temperature
  12. coach — pulled by horses
  13. hand — in cards
  14. hand — help
  15. straw — to clutch at straws
  16. bowl — a football final
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. degree — from a university
  19. kid — child
  20. shower — rain
  21. degree — an amount
  22. clip — a video
  23. straw — a straw man
  24. bowl — a dish

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