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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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Word bank
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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: hand · row · cell · mine · chair · clip · mate · cue

  1. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  3. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. He was locked up in a ________________.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  14. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  15. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  19. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. Have you found your soul ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. cue — a hint
  3. mate — a friend
  4. hand — help
  5. mate — to breed
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. mine — for digging
  8. clip — a video
  9. cell — a phone
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. cell — in a prison
  12. row — a line
  13. cue — a signal
  14. chair — a leader
  15. cue — for pool
  16. hand — in cards
  17. clip — to cut
  18. chair — a professorship
  19. cell — in biology
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. hand — part of the body
  22. row — to paddle
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. mate — a partner

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