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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. Did you ________________ the meat?
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. That was ________________ to happen.
  5. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  6. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  7. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  8. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  9. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  10. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  13. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  19. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  22. The ball is in your ________________.
  23. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  24. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.

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

Answer key

  1. season — to add flavour
  2. spell — letters
  3. tear — from crying
  4. bound — certain
  5. track — to keep track
  6. bound — obliged
  7. spell — a short time
  8. court — of law
  9. spell — magic
  10. season — of the year
  11. clip — a video
  12. season — in sport
  13. track — a song
  14. tear — from crying
  15. wake — before a funeral
  16. tear — to rip
  17. clip — to cut
  18. bound — tied together
  19. wake — to stop sleeping
  20. clip — for paper
  21. track — a path
  22. court — for sport
  23. court — of a king
  24. wake — a trail

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