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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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  5. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  6. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  14. Have you found your soul ________________?
  15. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  18. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  19. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  20. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  21. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  22. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  23. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  24. Have you settled on a ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. kid — to tease
  3. clip — a video
  4. fall — to drop
  5. fall — the season
  6. face — to point toward
  7. kid — child
  8. clip — for paper
  9. field — for sport
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. fall — to drop
  12. field — a subject
  13. wound — past of 'wind'
  14. mate — a partner
  15. date — on the calendar
  16. field — farmland
  17. wound — an injury
  18. face — to confront
  19. wound — an injury
  20. mate — a friend
  21. face — part of the head
  22. mate — to breed
  23. date — the fruit
  24. date — on the calendar

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