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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 120 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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  2. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  9. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  10. She's very handy with a ________________.
  11. Don't do anything ________________.
  12. He works in a ________________ mill.
  13. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  14. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  21. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  22. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.

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

Answer key

  1. branch — of a tree
  2. dip — a sauce
  3. clip — to cut
  4. clip — for paper
  5. kid — child
  6. row — a line
  7. kid — to tease
  8. rash — a series
  9. saw — past of 'see'
  10. saw — the tool
  11. rash — hasty
  12. saw — the tool
  13. dip — to sink
  14. rash — on the skin
  15. clip — a video
  16. dip — to dunk
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. tear — from crying
  19. tear — to rip
  20. branch — a division
  21. row — a quarrel
  22. branch — of a bank
  23. row — to paddle
  24. tear — from crying

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