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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. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  4. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  5. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  14. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  20. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  21. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  22. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  23. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  24. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. clip — for paper
  3. pitch — a sports field
  4. current — electric
  5. current — happening now
  6. field — farmland
  7. pitch — completely
  8. clip — to cut
  9. clip — a video
  10. field — a subject
  11. kid — to tease
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. pitch — a sales talk
  14. tear — from crying
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. field — for sport
  17. bark — a dog's sound
  18. kid — child
  19. bark — of a tree
  20. mine — for digging
  21. bark — to shout
  22. current — of water
  23. tear — to rip
  24. mine — belonging to me

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