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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 124 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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  3. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  7. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  10. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  14. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  18. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  19. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  20. The ball is in your ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  23. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. pound — for dogs
  3. deal — an agreement
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. race — a contest
  6. race — humankind
  7. ruler — a monarch
  8. bat — the animal
  9. ruler — for measuring
  10. deal — a big deal
  11. clip — to cut
  12. cold — not warm
  13. deal — to handle
  14. pound — to hit hard
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. clip — a video
  17. race — the arms race
  18. court — of law
  19. ruler — for measuring
  20. court — for sport
  21. cold — an illness
  22. court — of a king
  23. pound — a weight
  24. cold — the Cold War

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