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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 120 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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: wound · drill · squash · game · clip · mine

  1. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  2. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  3. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  4. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  11. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  14. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  15. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  16. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — a video
  2. wound — an injury
  3. squash — the sport
  4. drill — the tool
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. game — wild animals
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. wound — an injury
  9. clip — for paper
  10. drill — a practice
  11. wound — past of 'wind'
  12. clip — to cut
  13. mine — for digging
  14. drill — army training
  15. squash — to crush
  16. squash — the vegetable
  17. game — a match
  18. mine — an explosive

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