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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: rest · nail · racket · cold · kick · land · clip · chip

  1. When are we going to ________________?
  2. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  3. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  4. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  7. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  8. The ________________ went through the wall.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  17. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  18. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  19. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  22. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  23. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — to come down
  2. nail — on a finger
  3. nail — for a hammer
  4. racket — for tennis
  5. land — ground
  6. chip — for betting
  7. rest — a break
  8. nail — for a hammer
  9. clip — for paper
  10. racket — a loud noise
  11. clip — to cut
  12. racket — for tennis
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. cold — an illness
  15. land — a country
  16. rest — what's left
  17. kick — a thrill
  18. chip — to eat
  19. kick — with a leg
  20. clip — a video
  21. kick — in football
  22. rest — what's left
  23. chip — in a computer
  24. cold — not warm

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