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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. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  2. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  9. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  10. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  18. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  19. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  20. Did you ________________ the meat?
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  23. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  24. That was a fun ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kick — with a leg
  2. season — of the year
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. kick — a thrill
  5. cold — not warm
  6. clip — a video
  7. wound — an injury
  8. kick — in football
  9. prune — to trim
  10. prune — to trim
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. wound — an injury
  13. cold — an illness
  14. branch — a division
  15. clip — for paper
  16. game — wild animals
  17. branch — of a bank
  18. branch — of a tree
  19. wound — past of 'wind'
  20. season — to add flavour
  21. clip — to cut
  22. prune — the fruit
  23. season — in sport
  24. game — a match

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