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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. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  2. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  6. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  7. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  8. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  9. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. The ball is in your ________________.
  20. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kick — a thrill
  2. march — the month
  3. squash — to crush
  4. hand — help
  5. squash — the sport
  6. kick — in football
  7. fall — to drop
  8. fall — to drop
  9. squash — the vegetable
  10. clip — a video
  11. kick — with a leg
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. clip — to cut
  14. fall — the season
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. court — of law
  17. court — of a king
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. court — for sport
  20. march — music
  21. clip — for paper
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. hand — in cards
  24. march — the month

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