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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: firm · kick · band · squash · bat · land · clip · lash

  1. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  2. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  3. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  8. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  9. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  10. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  11. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  12. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  23. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. firm — a company
  2. band — a music group
  3. squash — the sport
  4. land — a country
  5. lash — a whip stroke
  6. clip — to cut
  7. squash — the vegetable
  8. kick — with a leg
  9. firm — decided
  10. lash — to lash out
  11. kick — a thrill
  12. squash — to crush
  13. clip — a video
  14. band — a rubber band
  15. clip — for paper
  16. kick — in football
  17. land — to come down
  18. bat — the animal
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. lash — an eyelash
  21. land — ground
  22. band — a ring
  23. firm — steady
  24. bat — for baseball

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