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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  3. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  14. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  18. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  19. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  20. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. calf — of the leg
  3. mine — belonging to me
  4. bat — the animal
  5. wind — moving air
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. clip — for paper
  8. snap — to snap out of it
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. capital — a city
  11. clip — to cut
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. capital — money
  14. rule — to rule out
  15. clip — a video
  16. mine — for digging
  17. rule — government
  18. snap — to speak sharply
  19. rule — a law
  20. calf — a young animal
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. calf — a young animal
  23. wind — moving air
  24. bat — for baseball

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