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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. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. The ________________ went through the wall.
  6. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  16. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  23. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  24. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.

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

Answer key

  1. nail — on a finger
  2. clip — a video
  3. track — a song
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. nail — for a hammer
  6. track — a path
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. straw — dry grass
  10. wind — moving air
  11. clip — to cut
  12. chip — in a computer
  13. bat — the animal
  14. shower — rain
  15. chip — to eat
  16. track — to keep track
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. clip — for paper
  19. nail — for a hammer
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. shower — to wash
  22. chip — for betting
  23. straw — to clutch at straws
  24. wind — moving air

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