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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: temple · kid · root · hide · field · cold · clip · roll

  1. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  5. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  8. When was this ________________ built?
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  11. We're on a ________________ here.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  15. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. hide — animal skin
  3. kid — to tease
  4. roll — a list
  5. hide — to keep secret
  6. clip — a video
  7. temple — a place of worship
  8. temple — a place of worship
  9. cold — not warm
  10. hide — to keep secret
  11. roll — on a roll
  12. field — farmland
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. root — of a plant
  15. roll — a cake
  16. clip — to cut
  17. cold — an illness
  18. field — a subject
  19. root — the cause
  20. field — for sport
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. temple — side of the head
  23. kid — child
  24. root — of a word

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