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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. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  4. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  9. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  10. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  11. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  20. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  24. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.

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

Answer key

  1. craft — boats
  2. clip — to cut
  3. lie — to recline
  4. craft — a skill
  5. march — the month
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. bore — to drill
  9. mine — an explosive
  10. bore — gave birth
  11. prune — to trim
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. clip — a video
  14. lie — an untruth
  15. march — music
  16. cold — an illness
  17. clip — for paper
  18. mine — for digging
  19. prune — to trim
  20. bore — to tire
  21. march — the month
  22. cold — not warm
  23. lie — an untruth
  24. craft — a handicraft

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