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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. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  2. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  8. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  11. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  12. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  13. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  14. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  15. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  16. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  17. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. How do you ________________ your surname?
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — in an idiom
  2. wake — to stop sleeping
  3. clip — a video
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. wake — a trail
  6. clip — to cut
  7. straw — to clutch at straws
  8. march — the month
  9. bat — the animal
  10. spell — a short time
  11. tear — to rip
  12. march — music
  13. spell — magic
  14. straw — dry grass
  15. wake — before a funeral
  16. march — the month
  17. tear — from crying
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. spell — letters
  21. clip — for paper
  22. content — happy
  23. content — the amount
  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