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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. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  4. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  5. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  6. How do you ________________ your surname?
  7. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  8. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  14. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. The King held a masked ________________.
  18. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. It's one o'clock ________________.
  21. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  22. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  23. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. tear — from crying
  3. tear — to rip
  4. tear — from crying
  5. chair — to sit on
  6. spell — letters
  7. sharp — clever
  8. sharp — with an edge
  9. game — a match
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. ball — a great time
  14. chair — a leader
  15. clip — a video
  16. clip — to cut
  17. ball — a dance
  18. spell — magic
  19. spell — a short time
  20. sharp — exactly
  21. straw — dry grass
  22. game — wild animals
  23. ball — a round shape
  24. clip — for paper

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