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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: spring · last · hand · bat · scale · rule · clip · ball

  1. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  10. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  11. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. False peace will not ________________.
  18. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  19. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  20. The King held a masked ________________.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.

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

Answer key

  1. rule — government
  2. clip — a video
  3. hand — in cards
  4. rule — a law
  5. spring — a coil
  6. bat — the animal
  7. hand — help
  8. clip — to cut
  9. spring — the season
  10. last — finally
  11. scale — for weighing
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. ball — a great time
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. scale — in music
  16. spring — of water
  17. last — to go on
  18. ball — a round shape
  19. last — final
  20. ball — a dance
  21. clip — for paper
  22. scale — size or range
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. rule — to rule out

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