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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: last · cold · kid · coach · club · clip · lean · tear

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  4. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  5. Have you met the new head ________________?
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  10. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  11. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  16. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  17. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  21. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. False peace will not ________________.
  24. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. kid — to tease
  3. club — for golf
  4. tear — from crying
  5. coach — a trainer
  6. cold — not warm
  7. kid — child
  8. clip — for paper
  9. lean — to rest against
  10. club — for dancing
  11. lean — thin
  12. clip — to cut
  13. tear — to rip
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. club — a group
  16. coach — pulled by horses
  17. coach — a trainer
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. last — finally
  20. last — final
  21. tear — from crying
  22. clip — a video
  23. last — to go on
  24. lean — to bend

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