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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 120 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: bat · wound · net · clip · bear · rock · rash · hand

  1. Don't do anything ________________.
  2. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  3. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  4. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  5. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  6. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  16. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. I don't want to ________________ the boat.

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

Answer key

  1. rash — hasty
  2. rock — music
  3. net — in sport
  4. bear — the animal
  5. bear — to put up with
  6. wound — an injury
  7. hand — help
  8. rash — on the skin
  9. hand — in cards
  10. clip — for paper
  11. net — for catching
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. rash — a series
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. wound — past of 'wind'
  16. net — after costs
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. clip — a video
  19. rock — a stone
  20. bat — the animal
  21. bear — the animal
  22. wound — an injury
  23. clip — to cut
  24. rock — to move gently

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