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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's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  2. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  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. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. Have you met the new head ________________?
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. Don't do anything ________________.
  17. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. coach — pulled by horses
  3. tear — to rip
  4. tear — from crying
  5. wound — an injury
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. clip — to cut
  8. chest — a box
  9. chest — of your body
  10. tear — from crying
  11. cold — not warm
  12. rash — a series
  13. clip — for paper
  14. coach — a trainer
  15. kid — child
  16. rash — hasty
  17. coach — a trainer
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. cold — an illness
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. rash — on the skin
  22. clip — a video
  23. chest — of your body
  24. kid — to tease

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