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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: bat · spell · shower · wind · stick · cold · clip · swing

  1. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  5. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  6. David sat on the ________________.
  7. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  10. How do you ________________ your surname?
  11. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  19. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  20. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  21. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  22. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — a video
  2. bat — the animal
  3. shower — to wash
  4. stick — a piece of wood
  5. stick — to attach or keep to
  6. swing — to play on
  7. stick — a piece of wood
  8. cold — an illness
  9. shower — a meteor shower
  10. spell — letters
  11. spell — magic
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. cold — not warm
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. wind — moving air
  18. shower — rain
  19. wind — moving air
  20. spell — a short time
  21. swing — music
  22. swing — in golf
  23. clip — for paper
  24. clip — to cut

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