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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. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  4. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. Did you ________________ the meat?
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  17. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. clip — to cut
  3. scale — for weighing
  4. snap — to speak sharply
  5. row — a line
  6. snap — to click
  7. game — a match
  8. scale — size or range
  9. content — happy
  10. snap — to snap out of it
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. chest — of your body
  13. chest — a box
  14. season — to add flavour
  15. clip — for paper
  16. season — of the year
  17. row — a quarrel
  18. content — the amount
  19. row — to paddle
  20. scale — in music
  21. chest — of your body
  22. season — in sport
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. clip — a video

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