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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 120 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. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  8. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  9. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  17. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  18. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  22. The tickets are free of ________________.
  23. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. charge — in control
  2. tear — from crying
  3. chest — of your body
  4. clip — to cut
  5. bat — the animal
  6. clip — for paper
  7. present — a gift
  8. tear — to rip
  9. present — there
  10. tear — from crying
  11. land — a country
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. chest — of your body
  15. clip — a video
  16. wound — an injury
  17. charge — electricity
  18. land — ground
  19. land — to come down
  20. chest — a box
  21. present — the time now
  22. charge — a price
  23. wound — an injury
  24. bat — in an idiom

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