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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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468
Word bank
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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. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  4. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  5. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  12. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  13. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  14. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  15. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  20. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  21. David sat on the ________________.
  22. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  23. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  24. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. tear — from crying
  3. march — the month
  4. squash — the vegetable
  5. stick — to attach or keep to
  6. tear — from crying
  7. clip — for paper
  8. swing — in golf
  9. march — the month
  10. tear — to rip
  11. row — a quarrel
  12. stick — a piece of wood
  13. row — a line
  14. squash — to crush
  15. stick — a piece of wood
  16. row — to paddle
  17. stem — to come from
  18. clip — a video
  19. squash — the sport
  20. swing — music
  21. swing — to play on
  22. stem — of a plant
  23. march — music
  24. stem — a stem cell

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