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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. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  3. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  9. How do you ________________ your surname?
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  12. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  13. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  14. We're on a ________________ here.
  15. That must've been a ________________.
  16. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  17. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  18. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  19. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  20. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  21. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. rush — hurry
  3. file — a line of people
  4. clip — a video
  5. clip — for paper
  6. fall — the season
  7. file — a tool
  8. roll — a cake
  9. spell — letters
  10. tear — from crying
  11. bore — gave birth
  12. fall — to drop
  13. bore — to tire
  14. roll — on a roll
  15. rush — a thrill
  16. spell — a short time
  17. fall — to drop
  18. spell — magic
  19. bore — to drill
  20. rush — to hurry
  21. roll — a list
  22. clip — to cut
  23. tear — to rip
  24. file — a document

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