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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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  3. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  4. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  5. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  8. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  9. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  12. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  13. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  18. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  19. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  20. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  23. False peace will not ________________.
  24. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. tear — from crying
  3. perch — for a bird
  4. last — final
  5. tear — from crying
  6. clip — a video
  7. last — finally
  8. wake — to stop sleeping
  9. mark — a trace
  10. field — a subject
  11. face — part of the head
  12. mark — a grade
  13. wake — a trail
  14. field — for sport
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. field — farmland
  17. mark — to pay attention
  18. wake — before a funeral
  19. face — to confront
  20. face — to point toward
  21. clip — for paper
  22. tear — to rip
  23. last — to go on
  24. perch — the fish

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