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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 · mark · chest · staff · game · drill · clip · bat

  1. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  2. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  6. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  7. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  10. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. That was a fun ________________.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. mark — a trace
  2. drill — a practice
  3. game — wild animals
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. chest — of your body
  6. mark — a grade
  7. mark — to pay attention
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. staff — employees
  10. drill — army training
  11. kid — to tease
  12. drill — the tool
  13. kid — child
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. clip — to cut
  16. staff — employees
  17. clip — a video
  18. bat — the animal
  19. staff — a stick
  20. chest — of your body
  21. chest — a box
  22. clip — for paper
  23. game — a match
  24. bat — in an idiom

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