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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. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  3. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  4. That was ________________ to happen.
  5. Have you found your soul ________________?
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  8. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  13. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  20. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  24. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — to cool the air
  2. mate — a friend
  3. wind — to turn a key
  4. bound — certain
  5. mate — a partner
  6. clip — a video
  7. wind — moving air
  8. bound — obliged
  9. wound — an injury
  10. kick — in football
  11. clip — for paper
  12. fan — a supporter
  13. kick — a thrill
  14. clip — to cut
  15. kick — with a leg
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. wound — an injury
  18. kid — to tease
  19. bound — tied together
  20. wind — moving air
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. kid — child
  23. fan — a supporter
  24. mate — to breed

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