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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. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  2. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. I'll be taking the ________________.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  6. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  9. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  10. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  11. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  12. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  15. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  16. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  19. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the sport
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. tube — the underground
  4. hand — in cards
  5. kick — in football
  6. branch — of a tree
  7. cold — not warm
  8. squash — the vegetable
  9. kick — a thrill
  10. branch — a division
  11. kick — with a leg
  12. scale — size or range
  13. clip — for paper
  14. branch — of a bank
  15. scale — for weighing
  16. tube — a container
  17. clip — a video
  18. tube — in a tire
  19. hand — help
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. squash — to crush
  22. clip — to cut
  23. cold — an illness
  24. scale — in music

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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