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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 116 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. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  4. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  9. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  15. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  16. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  21. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. tear — from crying
  3. root — of a word
  4. march — the month
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. clip — for paper
  8. march — music
  9. capital — a city
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. capital — money
  12. file — a tool
  13. tear — to rip
  14. root — the cause
  15. root — of a plant
  16. wind — moving air
  17. wind — moving air
  18. file — a document
  19. clip — a video
  20. tear — from crying
  21. straw — dry grass
  22. march — the month
  23. wind — to turn a key
  24. file — a line of people

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