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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 hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  7. That was ________________ to happen.
  8. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  11. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  12. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  13. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  17. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  22. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  23. The ________________ went through the wall.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — part of the body
  2. net — after costs
  3. hand — help
  4. track — to keep track
  5. clip — to cut
  6. bound — obliged
  7. bound — certain
  8. nail — on a finger
  9. field — a subject
  10. net — in sport
  11. tear — from crying
  12. bound — tied together
  13. tear — from crying
  14. hand — in cards
  15. tear — to rip
  16. track — a path
  17. net — for catching
  18. clip — a video
  19. field — for sport
  20. field — farmland
  21. nail — for a hammer
  22. track — a song
  23. nail — for a hammer
  24. clip — for paper

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