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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: cold · content · hide · kid · clip · bowl · fall · spring

  1. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  2. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  9. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  10. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  11. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  14. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. hide — animal skin
  2. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  3. clip — for paper
  4. content — the amount
  5. cold — not warm
  6. hide — to keep secret
  7. clip — to cut
  8. hide — to keep secret
  9. bowl — a football final
  10. fall — to drop
  11. content — videos and posts
  12. clip — a video
  13. bowl — to roll
  14. spring — a coil
  15. spring — the season
  16. fall — the season
  17. cold — an illness
  18. content — happy
  19. kid — to tease
  20. bowl — a dish
  21. kid — child
  22. spring — of water
  23. fall — to drop
  24. cold — the Cold War

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