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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. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  12. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  13. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  14. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  19. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  20. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  24. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. spell — letters
  3. mouse — for a computer
  4. clip — for paper
  5. cue — a signal
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. object — to protest
  8. clip — to cut
  9. object — a thing
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. drill — a practice
  12. mouse — the animal
  13. cue — a hint
  14. cue — for pool
  15. cold — an illness
  16. drill — the tool
  17. clip — a video
  18. spell — magic
  19. object — an aim
  20. mouse — the animal
  21. row — to paddle
  22. cold — not warm
  23. spell — a short time
  24. drill — army training

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