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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: lean · pit · clip · nail · bat · wind · cold · land

  1. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  2. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  14. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  19. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. The ________________ went through the wall.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. nail — on a finger
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. cold — not warm
  5. bat — the animal
  6. land — a country
  7. lean — to rest against
  8. clip — a video
  9. pit — a hole
  10. wind — moving air
  11. nail — for a hammer
  12. cold — an illness
  13. pit — in a race
  14. lean — to bend
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. pit — a fruit stone
  17. clip — to cut
  18. lean — thin
  19. wind — to turn a key
  20. land — to come down
  21. nail — for a hammer
  22. clip — for paper
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. land — ground

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