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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: cold · cell · ball · clip · snap · mine · rock · lie

  1. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  3. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  8. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  9. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  10. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  11. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  15. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  16. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  17. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  20. The King held a masked ________________.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  24. He was locked up in a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to snap out of it
  2. ball — a great time
  3. cell — in biology
  4. cell — a phone
  5. clip — for paper
  6. clip — to cut
  7. ball — a round shape
  8. lie — an untruth
  9. mine — belonging to me
  10. lie — to recline
  11. rock — a stone
  12. clip — a video
  13. cold — an illness
  14. rock — to move gently
  15. lie — an untruth
  16. mine — an explosive
  17. snap — to click
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. mine — for digging
  20. ball — a dance
  21. cold — not warm
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. rock — music
  24. cell — in a prison

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