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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. Did you ________________ the meat?
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  5. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  6. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  7. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  10. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  11. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  16. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  21. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  24. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. season — to add flavour
  3. clip — to cut
  4. net — after costs
  5. net — for catching
  6. foot — the bottom
  7. season — of the year
  8. kid — child
  9. hand — help
  10. hand — in cards
  11. mine — belonging to me
  12. cold — not warm
  13. clip — a video
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. season — in sport
  16. net — in sport
  17. cold — an illness
  18. mine — for digging
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. foot — a measure
  21. hand — part of the body
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. foot — part of the body
  24. kid — to tease

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