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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. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  2. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  5. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. He is an ace ________________.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  13. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  14. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  18. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  19. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  22. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  23. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. pound — to hit hard
  3. clip — to cut
  4. bowl — a dish
  5. bowl — to roll
  6. cold — an illness
  7. pitcher — in baseball
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. clip — for paper
  10. pound — a weight
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. bear — to put up with
  13. pound — for dogs
  14. bowl — a football final
  15. hand — help
  16. clip — a video
  17. bear — the animal
  18. pitcher — a jug
  19. bear — the animal
  20. cold — not warm
  21. hand — part of the body
  22. straw — to clutch at straws
  23. straw — a straw man
  24. hand — in cards

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