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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. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  2. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  3. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  8. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  11. He is an ace ________________.
  12. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  13. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  16. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  17. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  18. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.

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

Answer key

  1. present — there
  2. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. file — a line of people
  5. clip — for paper
  6. bat — the animal
  7. present — a gift
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. clip — to cut
  10. fall — to drop
  11. pitcher — in baseball
  12. dip — to dunk
  13. fall — to drop
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. dip — to sink
  16. dip — a sauce
  17. kid — to tease
  18. file — a tool
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. present — the time now
  21. kid — child
  22. file — a document
  23. clip — a video
  24. fall — the season

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