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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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. He works in a ________________ mill.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  11. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  21. She's very handy with a ________________.
  22. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  23. When are we going to ________________?
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. drill — army training
  3. hand — help
  4. land — ground
  5. hand — part of the body
  6. tear — to rip
  7. saw — the tool
  8. tear — from crying
  9. field — a subject
  10. drill — a practice
  11. drill — the tool
  12. field — farmland
  13. racket — for tennis
  14. field — for sport
  15. clip — for paper
  16. racket — for tennis
  17. tear — from crying
  18. clip — a video
  19. hand — in cards
  20. saw — past of 'see'
  21. saw — the tool
  22. racket — a loud noise
  23. land — to come down
  24. land — a country

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