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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. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. He is an ace ________________.
  3. How do you ________________ your surname?
  4. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  5. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. False peace will not ________________.
  9. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  10. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  13. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  14. This piece is in a major ________________.
  15. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  16. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  17. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  21. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  22. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  23. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  24. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. pitcher — in baseball
  3. spell — letters
  4. last — finally
  5. wound — an injury
  6. clip — to cut
  7. tear — to rip
  8. last — to go on
  9. key — for a lock
  10. spell — a short time
  11. clip — for paper
  12. court — of law
  13. wound — past of 'wind'
  14. key — in music
  15. spell — magic
  16. key — the most important part
  17. pitcher — a jug
  18. court — for sport
  19. clip — a video
  20. wound — an injury
  21. last — final
  22. court — of a king
  23. tear — from crying
  24. pitcher — a jug

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