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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. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  4. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  5. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  6. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  7. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. My father caught me by the ________________.
  11. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  12. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  15. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  19. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  20. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  24. David sat on the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. clip — to cut
  3. lie — to recline
  4. lie — an untruth
  5. arm — a part of something
  6. scale — for weighing
  7. arm — part of the body
  8. field — for sport
  9. tear — to rip
  10. arm — part of the body
  11. scale — in music
  12. tear — from crying
  13. field — farmland
  14. swing — in golf
  15. swing — music
  16. clip — for paper
  17. row — to paddle
  18. lie — an untruth
  19. row — a quarrel
  20. scale — size or range
  21. clip — a video
  22. field — a subject
  23. tear — from crying
  24. swing — to play on

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