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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. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  2. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  9. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  14. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  15. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  19. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  20. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  21. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  24. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. lie — an untruth
  2. mine — belonging to me
  3. clip — a video
  4. squash — the vegetable
  5. cold — not warm
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. squash — to crush
  9. lie — an untruth
  10. clip — for paper
  11. squash — the sport
  12. clip — to cut
  13. net — in sport
  14. lie — to recline
  15. bear — to put up with
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. cold — an illness
  18. bear — the animal
  19. bear — the animal
  20. mine — for digging
  21. net — after costs
  22. bat — the animal
  23. net — for catching
  24. mine — an explosive

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