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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  3. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  4. Don't do anything ________________.
  5. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  8. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  11. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  12. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  13. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  14. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  17. The ________________ took off on time.
  18. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  19. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. chest — a box
  3. rash — a series
  4. rash — hasty
  5. snap — to speak sharply
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. perch — for a bird
  8. perch — the fish
  9. clip — a video
  10. plane — a tool
  11. perch — for a bird
  12. wake — a trail
  13. rash — on the skin
  14. chest — of your body
  15. cold — not warm
  16. snap — to snap out of it
  17. plane — an aircraft
  18. plane — in geometry
  19. chest — of your body
  20. clip — to cut
  21. wake — before a funeral
  22. cold — an illness
  23. clip — for paper
  24. wake — to stop sleeping

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