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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. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  4. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  8. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  13. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  22. That was a fun ________________.
  23. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — in cards
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. bowl — to roll
  4. bowl — a dish
  5. clip — for paper
  6. kid — to tease
  7. calf — of the leg
  8. game — wild animals
  9. cold — not warm
  10. cold — an illness
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. calf — a young animal
  13. row — a line
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. bowl — a football final
  17. row — to paddle
  18. clip — a video
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. kid — child
  21. hand — help
  22. game — a match
  23. calf — a young animal
  24. clip — to cut

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