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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: kick · wound · band · row · cold · calf · pitcher · snap

  1. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  6. He is an ace ________________.
  7. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  8. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  9. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  10. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  11. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  12. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  13. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  14. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  15. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  16. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  19. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  22. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  23. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  24. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to speak sharply
  2. cold — not warm
  3. snap — to click
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. band — a music group
  6. pitcher — in baseball
  7. calf — a young animal
  8. wound — past of 'wind'
  9. row — a line
  10. wound — an injury
  11. kick — a thrill
  12. calf — a young animal
  13. kick — with a leg
  14. row — to paddle
  15. wound — an injury
  16. pitcher — a jug
  17. cold — an illness
  18. band — a ring
  19. calf — of the leg
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. pitcher — a jug
  22. band — a rubber band
  23. row — a quarrel
  24. kick — in football

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