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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. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  2. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  3. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  10. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  11. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  12. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  13. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  19. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  20. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  21. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  24. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pit — a fruit stone
  2. perch — the fish
  3. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  4. clip — for paper
  5. pound — to hit hard
  6. cold — not warm
  7. cold — an illness
  8. clip — to cut
  9. pound — a weight
  10. wound — past of 'wind'
  11. pit — a hole
  12. mark — a grade
  13. kid — to tease
  14. clip — a video
  15. mark — to pay attention
  16. kid — child
  17. wound — an injury
  18. pit — in a race
  19. wound — an injury
  20. perch — for a bird
  21. mark — a trace
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. pound — for dogs
  24. perch — for a bird

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