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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. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  2. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  3. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  4. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. The ball is in your ________________.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. It's one o'clock ________________.
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  11. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  19. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  20. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  21. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  22. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  23. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  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. sharp — with an edge
  2. bore — gave birth
  3. bore — to tire
  4. chest — a box
  5. land — to come down
  6. court — for sport
  7. clip — to cut
  8. sharp — exactly
  9. wind — moving air
  10. land — ground
  11. present — there
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. present — the time now
  14. wind — moving air
  15. chest — of your body
  16. clip — for paper
  17. land — a country
  18. sharp — clever
  19. court — of law
  20. bore — to drill
  21. present — a gift
  22. chest — of your body
  23. court — of a king
  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