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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. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  2. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  5. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  6. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  7. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  8. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  11. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  15. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  16. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. This piece is in a major ________________.
  19. The ________________ took off on time.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  22. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  23. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  24. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hide — to keep secret
  2. chair — to sit on
  3. clip — to cut
  4. march — the month
  5. tear — to rip
  6. chair — a leader
  7. plane — a tool
  8. key — for a lock
  9. march — the month
  10. chair — a professorship
  11. tear — from crying
  12. clip — a video
  13. clip — for paper
  14. hide — to keep secret
  15. key — the most important part
  16. march — music
  17. spring — the season
  18. key — in music
  19. plane — an aircraft
  20. spring — a coil
  21. hide — animal skin
  22. tear — from crying
  23. plane — in geometry
  24. spring — of water

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