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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: drill · hand · bound · kid · cold · pop · clip · wound

  1. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  2. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  3. We're almost out of ________________.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  9. You don't need to ________________ round.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  12. That was ________________ to happen.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  17. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — army training
  2. bound — obliged
  3. pop — soda
  4. clip — for paper
  5. kid — to tease
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. clip — a video
  8. drill — the tool
  9. pop — to visit
  10. clip — to cut
  11. wound — past of 'wind'
  12. bound — certain
  13. hand — in cards
  14. wound — an injury
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. drill — a practice
  17. bound — tied together
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. kid — child
  20. wound — an injury
  21. cold — an illness
  22. hand — help
  23. cold — not warm
  24. pop — music

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