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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. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  6. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  9. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  21. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. clip — a video
  3. spring — of water
  4. spring — the season
  5. trunk — of a tree
  6. trunk — of a car
  7. capital — a city
  8. rest — what's left
  9. tear — from crying
  10. tear — to rip
  11. spring — a coil
  12. clip — to cut
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. tear — from crying
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. mine — for digging
  17. rest — a break
  18. capital — money
  19. kid — to tease
  20. trunk — of an elephant
  21. rest — what's left
  22. clip — for paper
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. mine — an explosive

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