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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: kid · clip · sharp · bore · wave · leaves · row · cold

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. It's one o'clock ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  10. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  11. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  12. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  17. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  20. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. sharp — exactly
  3. cold — an illness
  4. kid — child
  5. leaves — of a tree
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. wave — of the sea
  8. clip — for paper
  9. leaves — lets stay
  10. row — a line
  11. leaves — to go away
  12. bore — gave birth
  13. cold — not warm
  14. wave — a sudden rise
  15. clip — a video
  16. wave — with your hand
  17. sharp — with an edge
  18. clip — to cut
  19. bore — to drill
  20. bore — to tire
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. row — to paddle
  23. sharp — clever
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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