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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. He works in a ________________ mill.
  3. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  4. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. He was locked up in a ________________.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  11. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  12. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  15. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  16. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. She's very handy with a ________________.
  19. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  20. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  21. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. saw — the tool
  3. cell — in biology
  4. present — a gift
  5. clip — for paper
  6. cell — in a prison
  7. clip — a video
  8. drill — a practice
  9. tear — from crying
  10. march — the month
  11. present — there
  12. march — the month
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. present — the time now
  15. saw — past of 'see'
  16. drill — army training
  17. tear — to rip
  18. saw — the tool
  19. cell — a phone
  20. tear — from crying
  21. march — music
  22. bat — the animal
  23. drill — the tool
  24. bat — for baseball

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