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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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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: ground · cold · bat · wake · face · band · deal · clip

  1. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  2. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  3. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  12. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  13. There's no middle ________________.
  14. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  17. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  18. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.

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

Answer key

  1. deal — to handle
  2. face — to confront
  3. wake — a trail
  4. clip — for paper
  5. ground — the earth
  6. cold — an illness
  7. band — a music group
  8. clip — to cut
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. wake — before a funeral
  12. ground — crushed
  13. ground — a position
  14. face — to point toward
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. band — a ring
  17. band — a rubber band
  18. wake — to stop sleeping
  19. bat — the animal
  20. face — part of the head
  21. cold — not warm
  22. deal — an agreement
  23. clip — a video
  24. deal — a big deal

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