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

  1. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  2. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  10. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  11. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  12. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. How do you ________________ your surname?
  15. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  16. He is an ace ________________.
  17. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  18. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — to turn a key
  2. wound — an injury
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. wind — moving air
  5. chair — a leader
  6. clip — to cut
  7. pitcher — a jug
  8. wound — an injury
  9. chair — to sit on
  10. spell — a short time
  11. spell — magic
  12. wind — moving air
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. spell — letters
  15. chair — a professorship
  16. pitcher — in baseball
  17. root — of a plant
  18. root — of a word
  19. bat — the animal
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. clip — a video
  23. clip — for paper
  24. root — the cause

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