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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: last · kid · field · clip · fall · mine · nail · sharp

  1. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  3. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  4. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. The ________________ went through the wall.
  14. It's one o'clock ________________.
  15. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. False peace will not ________________.
  21. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  22. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. He's quite ________________, isn't he?

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. fall — to drop
  3. mine — belonging to me
  4. nail — on a finger
  5. field — a subject
  6. kid — to tease
  7. last — finally
  8. clip — for paper
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. mine — an explosive
  11. field — farmland
  12. clip — a video
  13. nail — for a hammer
  14. sharp — exactly
  15. fall — the season
  16. clip — to cut
  17. mine — for digging
  18. fall — to drop
  19. field — for sport
  20. last — to go on
  21. nail — for a hammer
  22. sharp — with an edge
  23. kid — child
  24. sharp — clever

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