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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. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  4. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  5. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  6. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  7. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  12. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  13. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  16. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  20. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  21. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  24. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. chest — of your body
  3. march — the month
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. bore — gave birth
  6. bore — to tire
  7. wind — moving air
  8. chest — of your body
  9. clip — a video
  10. clip — to cut
  11. march — music
  12. bark — to shout
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. clip — for paper
  15. bore — to drill
  16. bark — of a tree
  17. chest — a box
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. fan — a supporter
  20. content — the amount
  21. content — happy
  22. march — the month
  23. fan — to cool the air
  24. bark — a dog's sound

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