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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: ground · wake · clip · cold · face · lean · bat · game

  1. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  2. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  9. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  13. There's no middle ________________.
  14. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  17. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  18. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  21. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  24. Add some ________________ pepper to it.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — for baseball
  2. ground — the earth
  3. clip — to cut
  4. bat — the animal
  5. game — wild animals
  6. cold — not warm
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. lean — to rest against
  9. lean — thin
  10. cold — an illness
  11. clip — a video
  12. lean — to bend
  13. ground — a position
  14. face — to point toward
  15. game — a match
  16. face — to confront
  17. wake — a trail
  18. wake — to stop sleeping
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. game — a kind of play
  21. wake — before a funeral
  22. clip — for paper
  23. face — part of the head
  24. ground — crushed

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