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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: clip · cold · bat · row · mug · firm · pound · object

  1. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  2. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  8. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  9. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  13. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  14. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  15. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  21. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  22. Where did you ________________ them?
  23. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  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. bat — in an idiom
  2. firm — steady
  3. clip — a video
  4. row — a quarrel
  5. clip — for paper
  6. bat — the animal
  7. firm — decided
  8. object — to protest
  9. mug — a face
  10. cold — an illness
  11. cold — not warm
  12. firm — a company
  13. object — an aim
  14. mug — a cup
  15. object — a thing
  16. row — to paddle
  17. pound — to hit hard
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. clip — to cut
  20. pound — a weight
  21. row — a line
  22. mug — to rob
  23. pound — for dogs
  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