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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  3. She's very handy with a ________________.
  4. He is an ace ________________.
  5. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  6. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  7. Have you found your soul ________________?
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. He works in a ________________ mill.
  10. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  17. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  18. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  19. David sat on the ________________.
  20. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  21. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  22. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  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. snap — to click
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. saw — the tool
  4. pitcher — in baseball
  5. mate — to breed
  6. saw — past of 'see'
  7. mate — a partner
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. saw — the tool
  10. snap — to snap out of it
  11. cold — an illness
  12. clip — a video
  13. swing — music
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. cold — not warm
  16. pitcher — a jug
  17. pitch — a sports field
  18. swing — in golf
  19. swing — to play on
  20. mate — a friend
  21. pitch — a sales talk
  22. pitch — completely
  23. clip — for paper
  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