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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. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. Don't do anything ________________.
  8. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  9. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  10. He was locked up in a ________________.
  11. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  12. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  13. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  14. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. We're on a ________________ here.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  19. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  20. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  21. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  22. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. shower — rain
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. hand — in cards
  5. clip — a video
  6. clip — to cut
  7. rash — hasty
  8. rash — a series
  9. shower — a meteor shower
  10. cell — in a prison
  11. tear — from crying
  12. capital — a city
  13. roll — a cake
  14. cell — a phone
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. roll — on a roll
  17. clip — for paper
  18. roll — a list
  19. shower — to wash
  20. cell — in biology
  21. rash — on the skin
  22. tear — from crying
  23. capital — money
  24. tear — to rip

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