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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. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  7. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  8. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  9. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  14. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  19. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  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. leaves — of a tree
  3. tear — from crying
  4. capital — money
  5. content — happy
  6. leaves — to go away
  7. drill — a practice
  8. rule — government
  9. drill — the tool
  10. degree — an amount
  11. clip — to cut
  12. tear — to rip
  13. rule — to rule out
  14. rule — a law
  15. clip — for paper
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. degree — temperature
  18. drill — army training
  19. content — the amount
  20. capital — a city
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. degree — from a university
  23. leaves — lets stay
  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