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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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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: craft · rash · land · clip · pound · chest · snap · cold

  1. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  2. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  6. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  18. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. Don't do anything ________________.
  23. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  24. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.

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

Answer key

  1. pound — for dogs
  2. pound — to hit hard
  3. clip — for paper
  4. clip — a video
  5. snap — to speak sharply
  6. pound — a weight
  7. land — ground
  8. clip — to cut
  9. craft — boats
  10. chest — of your body
  11. land — to come down
  12. snap — to snap out of it
  13. land — a country
  14. cold — an illness
  15. snap — to click
  16. chest — of your body
  17. craft — a handicraft
  18. rash — on the skin
  19. cold — not warm
  20. chest — a box
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. rash — hasty
  23. rash — a series
  24. craft — a skill

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