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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: fall · cold · fan · season · kid · hand · pitcher · clip

  1. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  2. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  7. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Did you ________________ the meat?
  10. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  16. He is an ace ________________.
  17. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  18. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  21. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  22. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  23. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. season — in sport
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. clip — to cut
  4. clip — for paper
  5. hand — help
  6. season — of the year
  7. fall — the season
  8. cold — not warm
  9. season — to add flavour
  10. kid — to tease
  11. hand — in cards
  12. cold — an illness
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. pitcher — a jug
  16. pitcher — in baseball
  17. fan — a supporter
  18. fan — a supporter
  19. kid — child
  20. fan — to cool the air
  21. hand — part of the body
  22. fall — to drop
  23. fall — to drop
  24. clip — a video

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