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

Word bank: rest · clip · cold · cabinet · kid · wind

  1. What do you think of the new ________________?
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  14. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  17. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  18. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.

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

Answer key

  1. cabinet — ministers
  2. kid — to tease
  3. kid — child
  4. clip — to cut
  5. cabinet — ministers
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. clip — for paper
  8. cold — not warm
  9. wind — moving air
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. cold — an illness
  12. clip — a video
  13. cabinet — a cupboard
  14. rest — what's left
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. wind — moving air
  17. rest — a break
  18. rest — what's left

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