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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: bat · dip · clip · kid · branch · swing · face · pop

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. You don't need to ________________ round.
  3. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  4. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  5. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  8. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  9. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  10. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  11. We're almost out of ________________.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  17. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  21. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  22. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. David sat on the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. pop — to visit
  3. dip — to dunk
  4. face — to confront
  5. face — part of the head
  6. bat — the animal
  7. pop — music
  8. dip — to sink
  9. branch — of a bank
  10. face — to point toward
  11. pop — soda
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. clip — a video
  15. clip — to cut
  16. branch — a division
  17. swing — in golf
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. kid — child
  20. swing — music
  21. branch — of a tree
  22. dip — a sauce
  23. clip — for paper
  24. swing — to play on

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