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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 116 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: calf · fall · clip · cell · hand · last · saw · bat

  1. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. False peace will not ________________.
  4. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  5. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  6. He works in a ________________ mill.
  7. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  12. He was locked up in a ________________.
  13. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  21. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  24. She's very handy with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. clip — for paper
  3. last — to go on
  4. cell — in biology
  5. fall — to drop
  6. saw — the tool
  7. calf — a young animal
  8. hand — help
  9. calf — a young animal
  10. clip — to cut
  11. fall — to drop
  12. cell — in a prison
  13. saw — past of 'see'
  14. bat — the animal
  15. clip — a video
  16. calf — of the leg
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. cell — a phone
  19. last — finally
  20. hand — in cards
  21. hand — part of the body
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. fall — the season
  24. saw — the tool

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