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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: nail · saw · charge · clip · ground · bat · cold · kid

  1. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  2. The ________________ went through the wall.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. The tickets are free of ________________.
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. She's very handy with a ________________.
  11. He works in a ________________ mill.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  14. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  19. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  20. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  21. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  22. There's no middle ________________.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  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. saw — past of 'see'
  2. nail — for a hammer
  3. clip — for paper
  4. bat — the animal
  5. kid — child
  6. charge — a price
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. clip — to cut
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. saw — the tool
  11. saw — the tool
  12. cold — an illness
  13. charge — electricity
  14. ground — crushed
  15. cold — not warm
  16. kid — to tease
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. charge — in control
  19. nail — for a hammer
  20. nail — on a finger
  21. ground — the earth
  22. ground — a position
  23. clip — a video
  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