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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. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  7. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  18. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  19. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  23. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  24. Tom got himself in a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stick — a piece of wood
  2. clip — a video
  3. bass — the fish
  4. cold — not warm
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. bass — the instrument
  7. bass — low music
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. jam — to spread on bread
  10. hand — help
  11. clip — to cut
  12. mine — for digging
  13. cold — an illness
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. hand — in cards
  16. bat — the animal
  17. stick — to attach or keep to
  18. mine — belonging to me
  19. jam — in traffic
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. clip — for paper
  22. stick — a piece of wood
  23. hand — part of the body
  24. jam — a tight spot

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