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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  3. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  4. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  20. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  21. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  24. A black ________________ roamed the forest.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. straw — dry grass
  3. perch — for a bird
  4. straw — to clutch at straws
  5. capital — money
  6. kid — child
  7. perch — the fish
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. straw — a straw man
  10. cold — not warm
  11. kick — with a leg
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. clip — to cut
  14. capital — a city
  15. bear — to put up with
  16. clip — a video
  17. kid — to tease
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. kick — in football
  21. bear — the animal
  22. cold — an illness
  23. kick — a thrill
  24. bear — the animal

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