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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 are we going to ________________?
  2. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  17. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  18. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  19. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  22. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  23. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — to come down
  2. race — a contest
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. kid — to tease
  5. chip — for betting
  6. clip — a video
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. land — a country
  9. hand — in cards
  10. clip — to cut
  11. snap — to click
  12. kid — child
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. race — humankind
  15. clip — for paper
  16. snap — to speak sharply
  17. chip — in a computer
  18. mine — an explosive
  19. race — the arms race
  20. land — ground
  21. hand — help
  22. chip — to eat
  23. snap — to snap out of it
  24. mine — for digging

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