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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 116 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 put the ________________ back on the pen?
  2. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  6. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  7. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  8. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  14. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  17. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  20. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  21. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. cap — a lid
  2. wound — an injury
  3. land — to come down
  4. land — ground
  5. shower — a meteor shower
  6. dip — to dunk
  7. shower — rain
  8. cap — of ice
  9. clip — for paper
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. shower — to wash
  12. clip — a video
  13. lash — a whip stroke
  14. cap — a hat
  15. cold — not warm
  16. lash — an eyelash
  17. dip — a sauce
  18. clip — to cut
  19. dip — to sink
  20. lash — to lash out
  21. wound — an injury
  22. land — a country
  23. cold — an illness
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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