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

Word bank: wound · kick · cell · shower · cold · lie · clip · game

  1. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  2. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  3. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  10. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  19. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  20. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  21. He was locked up in a ________________.
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. shower — a meteor shower
  2. wound — past of 'wind'
  3. lie — to recline
  4. clip — for paper
  5. lie — an untruth
  6. game — a match
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. wound — an injury
  9. lie — an untruth
  10. kick — a thrill
  11. wound — an injury
  12. kick — with a leg
  13. clip — to cut
  14. cold — not warm
  15. shower — rain
  16. game — wild animals
  17. cold — an illness
  18. shower — to wash
  19. cell — in biology
  20. kick — in football
  21. cell — in a prison
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. cell — a phone
  24. clip — a video

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