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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: clip · staff · squash · kid · cold · snap · deal · bowl

  1. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  6. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  9. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  13. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  14. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  15. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  18. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  23. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  24. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the sport
  2. clip — for paper
  3. bowl — a football final
  4. cold — not warm
  5. snap — to click
  6. bowl — a dish
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. deal — a big deal
  9. staff — a stick
  10. cold — an illness
  11. clip — to cut
  12. snap — to speak sharply
  13. squash — to crush
  14. staff — employees
  15. deal — an agreement
  16. clip — a video
  17. squash — the vegetable
  18. snap — to snap out of it
  19. kid — to tease
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. kid — child
  22. deal — to handle
  23. staff — employees
  24. bowl — to roll

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