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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. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  3. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  4. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  5. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  8. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  12. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  16. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  17. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  21. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  22. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  23. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  24. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. wind — to turn a key
  3. shower — a meteor shower
  4. bore — to tire
  5. chip — to eat
  6. shower — to wash
  7. wind — moving air
  8. bore — to drill
  9. chest — of your body
  10. chest — a box
  11. race — humankind
  12. rule — a law
  13. wind — moving air
  14. shower — rain
  15. chip — for betting
  16. race — a contest
  17. race — the arms race
  18. clip — for paper
  19. clip — a video
  20. rule — government
  21. rule — to rule out
  22. bore — gave birth
  23. chip — in a computer
  24. chest — of your body

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