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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 116 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. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  3. How do you ________________ your surname?
  4. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  5. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  9. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  10. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  19. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  20. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  21. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  22. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  23. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. tear — from crying
  3. spell — letters
  4. tear — to rip
  5. trunk — of a tree
  6. clip — for paper
  7. spring — the season
  8. trunk — of a car
  9. spell — magic
  10. tear — from crying
  11. degree — an amount
  12. content — happy
  13. degree — from a university
  14. spring — of water
  15. content — videos and posts
  16. degree — temperature
  17. clip — to cut
  18. spell — a short time
  19. trunk — of an elephant
  20. content — the amount
  21. chair — a leader
  22. chair — a professorship
  23. chair — to sit on
  24. clip — a video

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