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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 120 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. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  3. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  4. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  9. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. The ________________ took off on time.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  15. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  16. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  19. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  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. tear — from crying
  2. bat — in an idiom
  3. tear — to rip
  4. bark — to shout
  5. capital — a city
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. tear — from crying
  8. plane — a tool
  9. bark — of a tree
  10. clip — for paper
  11. plane — an aircraft
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. bat — the animal
  14. rock — music
  15. plane — in geometry
  16. capital — money
  17. content — the amount
  18. content — happy
  19. rock — a stone
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. bark — a dog's sound
  22. clip — to cut
  23. rock — to move gently
  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