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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  3. There's no middle ________________.
  4. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  5. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  6. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  11. She's very handy with a ________________.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  14. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  15. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  16. Have you met the new head ________________?
  17. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  18. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. He works in a ________________ mill.
  21. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  24. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  3. ground — a position
  4. bass — the instrument
  5. coach — a trainer
  6. bass — low music
  7. chest — of your body
  8. chest — of your body
  9. kid — child
  10. coach — pulled by horses
  11. saw — the tool
  12. clip — for paper
  13. ground — crushed
  14. chest — a box
  15. squash — to crush
  16. coach — a trainer
  17. squash — the vegetable
  18. bass — the fish
  19. clip — to cut
  20. saw — the tool
  21. squash — the sport
  22. clip — a video
  23. ground — the earth
  24. saw — past of 'see'

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