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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: clip · cold · wound · chip · bat · mark · vault · land

  1. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  8. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  9. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  14. When are we going to ________________?
  15. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  19. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  20. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  21. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  22. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  23. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. clip — a video
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. bat — the animal
  6. land — ground
  7. vault — in gymnastics
  8. chip — to eat
  9. mark — a grade
  10. clip — to cut
  11. cold — an illness
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. vault — an arched ceiling
  14. land — to come down
  15. wound — an injury
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. land — a country
  18. mark — a trace
  19. mark — to pay attention
  20. vault — a safe
  21. wound — an injury
  22. chip — in a computer
  23. chip — for betting
  24. cold — not warm

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