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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. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  5. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  8. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  9. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  10. There's no middle ________________.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  14. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  20. How do you ________________ your surname?
  21. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  22. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — a short time
  2. kid — child
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  5. lash — to lash out
  6. clip — for paper
  7. lash — an eyelash
  8. ground — the earth
  9. snap — to snap out of it
  10. ground — a position
  11. clip — a video
  12. row — a line
  13. spell — magic
  14. lash — a whip stroke
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. bat — the animal
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. clip — to cut
  19. snap — to speak sharply
  20. spell — letters
  21. ground — crushed
  22. snap — to click
  23. row — to paddle
  24. kid — to tease

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