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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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  8. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  9. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. That must've been a ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  20. My mare is ________________ in color.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  24. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. rush — hurry
  3. content — happy
  4. vault — a safe
  5. clip — a video
  6. tear — from crying
  7. vault — an arched ceiling
  8. chair — to sit on
  9. vault — in gymnastics
  10. clip — for paper
  11. tear — from crying
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. chair — a professorship
  14. cold — an illness
  15. rush — to hurry
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. rush — a thrill
  18. cold — not warm
  19. bay — a part of the sea
  20. bay — a horse colour
  21. tear — to rip
  22. content — the amount
  23. bay — to keep at bay
  24. chair — a leader

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