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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. I can't ________________ this cold.
  5. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  8. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  9. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  10. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. How do you ________________ your surname?
  21. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. Have you found your soul ________________?
  24. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. clip — to cut
  3. hand — in cards
  4. stand — to bear
  5. mate — a friend
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. row — a line
  8. stand — for spectators
  9. row — to paddle
  10. spell — a short time
  11. clip — a video
  12. cold — an illness
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. clip — for paper
  15. spell — magic
  16. cold — not warm
  17. hand — help
  18. mate — to breed
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. spell — letters
  21. stand — on your feet
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. mate — a partner
  24. kid — child

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