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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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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 · cap · chip · dip · drill · court · bat · kid

  1. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  8. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  9. The ball is in your ________________.
  10. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  11. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  15. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  16. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  19. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  20. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  21. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  24. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. kid — to tease
  3. clip — for paper
  4. drill — a practice
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. clip — to cut
  7. cap — of ice
  8. chip — for betting
  9. court — for sport
  10. dip — to dunk
  11. dip — a sauce
  12. kid — child
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. dip — to sink
  15. court — of a king
  16. chip — in a computer
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. cap — a lid
  19. court — of law
  20. drill — army training
  21. drill — the tool
  22. clip — a video
  23. chip — to eat
  24. cap — a hat

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