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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. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  2. False peace will not ________________.
  3. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  4. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  7. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  8. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  9. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  10. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  11. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  14. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  15. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. When was this ________________ built?
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.

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

Answer key

  1. kick — with a leg
  2. last — to go on
  3. row — a quarrel
  4. temple — side of the head
  5. content — happy
  6. kick — a thrill
  7. race — the arms race
  8. last — final
  9. content — videos and posts
  10. race — a contest
  11. race — humankind
  12. row — a line
  13. march — music
  14. last — finally
  15. temple — a place of worship
  16. content — the amount
  17. clip — for paper
  18. march — the month
  19. clip — to cut
  20. temple — a place of worship
  21. row — to paddle
  22. kick — in football
  23. clip — a video
  24. march — the month

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