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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. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  2. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  10. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  11. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. That was a fun ________________.
  14. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  20. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  21. David sat on the ________________.
  22. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. pit — a fruit stone
  2. wind — moving air
  3. hand — help
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. pit — in a race
  6. clip — a video
  7. spring — a coil
  8. clip — to cut
  9. wave — with your hand
  10. wave — a sudden rise
  11. game — wild animals
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. game — a match
  14. swing — music
  15. spring — of water
  16. spring — the season
  17. pit — a hole
  18. hand — in cards
  19. wind — moving air
  20. wave — of the sea
  21. swing — to play on
  22. swing — in golf
  23. clip — for paper
  24. game — a kind of play

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