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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. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  2. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. That must've been a ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  8. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  9. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  10. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  11. The ________________ went through the wall.
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  19. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  24. ________________ you help me carry this box?

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

Answer key

  1. nail — for a hammer
  2. nail — on a finger
  3. cold — not warm
  4. rush — a thrill
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. cold — an illness
  7. can — a tin
  8. branch — a division
  9. can — a tin
  10. track — a path
  11. nail — for a hammer
  12. bat — the animal
  13. branch — of a tree
  14. clip — for paper
  15. clip — to cut
  16. rush — to hurry
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. track — a song
  19. track — to keep track
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. branch — of a bank
  22. clip — a video
  23. rush — hurry
  24. can — to be able to

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