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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 · mate · press · content · clip · kid · nail · dip

  1. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. The ________________ went through the wall.
  3. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  6. Did you ________________ the button?
  7. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  10. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  11. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  14. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  17. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  18. Have you found your soul ________________?
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  21. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. nail — for a hammer
  3. mate — a friend
  4. kid — to tease
  5. vault — a safe
  6. press — to push
  7. nail — for a hammer
  8. content — the amount
  9. dip — a sauce
  10. vault — in gymnastics
  11. nail — on a finger
  12. clip — to cut
  13. mate — to breed
  14. content — happy
  15. clip — a video
  16. press — a publisher
  17. dip — to dunk
  18. mate — a partner
  19. kid — child
  20. vault — an arched ceiling
  21. press — newspapers
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. dip — to sink

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