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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  5. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  6. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. He is an ace ________________.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  11. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  12. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  24. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. wound — an injury
  3. clip — to cut
  4. wound — an injury
  5. pitcher — a jug
  6. face — part of the head
  7. cold — an illness
  8. pitcher — in baseball
  9. spring — a coil
  10. snap — to snap out of it
  11. bowl — a football final
  12. bowl — a dish
  13. cold — not warm
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. clip — for paper
  16. spring — the season
  17. bowl — to roll
  18. clip — a video
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. face — to confront
  23. spring — of water
  24. face — to point toward

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