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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: wound · ball · clip · lie · mate · land · cold · pop

  1. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  2. Have you found your soul ________________?
  3. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  6. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  7. The King held a masked ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  12. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  15. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. We're almost out of ________________.
  22. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  23. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  24. You don't need to ________________ round.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — to breed
  2. mate — a partner
  3. ball — a great time
  4. clip — for paper
  5. wound — an injury
  6. ball — a round shape
  7. ball — a dance
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. land — a country
  10. land — to come down
  11. wound — past of 'wind'
  12. pop — music
  13. clip — to cut
  14. lie — an untruth
  15. wound — an injury
  16. cold — an illness
  17. land — ground
  18. clip — a video
  19. lie — to recline
  20. cold — not warm
  21. pop — soda
  22. mate — a friend
  23. lie — an untruth
  24. pop — to visit

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