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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 120 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. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. What do you think of the new ________________?
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  5. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  6. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  9. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  10. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  11. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  12. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. That was a fun ________________.
  15. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  20. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. cabinet — ministers
  3. game — wild animals
  4. mate — to breed
  5. tear — to rip
  6. lean — to rest against
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. lean — to bend
  9. fall — to drop
  10. mate — a friend
  11. tear — from crying
  12. fall — the season
  13. clip — for paper
  14. game — a match
  15. game — a kind of play
  16. clip — to cut
  17. cabinet — ministers
  18. clip — a video
  19. fall — to drop
  20. lean — thin
  21. bat — the animal
  22. cabinet — a cupboard
  23. bat — in an idiom
  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