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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  3. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  4. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  5. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  6. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  9. How do you ________________ your surname?
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  18. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  19. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  22. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  23. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  24. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. tear — to rip
  3. lean — thin
  4. dip — to dunk
  5. dip — to sink
  6. lean — to rest against
  7. mine — for digging
  8. dip — a sauce
  9. spell — letters
  10. tear — from crying
  11. file — a tool
  12. file — a line of people
  13. tear — from crying
  14. march — the month
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. file — a document
  17. spell — a short time
  18. march — music
  19. spell — magic
  20. kid — child
  21. mine — belonging to me
  22. lean — to bend
  23. march — the month
  24. mine — an explosive

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