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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: vault · roll · spell · cold · hide · clip · kid · wave

  1. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  2. We're on a ________________ here.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  7. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  10. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  11. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  12. How do you ________________ your surname?
  13. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  16. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  17. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  20. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.

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

Answer key

  1. hide — to keep secret
  2. roll — on a roll
  3. cold — not warm
  4. clip — to cut
  5. kid — child
  6. vault — an arched ceiling
  7. wave — with your hand
  8. cold — an illness
  9. spell — magic
  10. wave — of the sea
  11. roll — a cake
  12. spell — letters
  13. wave — a sudden rise
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. hide — to keep secret
  16. roll — a list
  17. vault — a safe
  18. kid — to tease
  19. vault — in gymnastics
  20. spell — a short time
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. clip — a video
  23. clip — for paper
  24. hide — animal skin

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