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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'd like to play a game of ________________.
  2. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  7. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  8. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. He was locked up in a ________________.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. The King held a masked ________________.
  13. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  14. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  15. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  16. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  19. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  20. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  24. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the sport
  2. hide — animal skin
  3. clip — to cut
  4. tear — to rip
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. squash — the vegetable
  7. ball — a round shape
  8. firm — steady
  9. tear — from crying
  10. cell — in a prison
  11. clip — for paper
  12. ball — a dance
  13. cell — a phone
  14. ball — a great time
  15. hide — to keep secret
  16. hide — to keep secret
  17. cold — not warm
  18. firm — decided
  19. firm — a company
  20. cell — in biology
  21. cold — an illness
  22. clip — a video
  23. squash — to crush
  24. tear — from crying

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