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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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  5. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  8. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  11. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  12. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  13. Have you met the new head ________________?
  14. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  15. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  22. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  23. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. lean — to bend
  3. clip — for paper
  4. racket — for tennis
  5. racket — a loud noise
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. lean — thin
  8. chest — a box
  9. file — a document
  10. race — a contest
  11. racket — for tennis
  12. coach — a trainer
  13. coach — a trainer
  14. straw — dry grass
  15. coach — pulled by horses
  16. chest — of your body
  17. straw — to clutch at straws
  18. chest — of your body
  19. file — a tool
  20. clip — a video
  21. lean — to rest against
  22. race — humankind
  23. race — the arms race
  24. file — a line of people

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