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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 116 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. That was ________________ to happen.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. False peace will not ________________.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  8. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  11. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  15. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  16. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  17. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  20. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  21. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  22. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  23. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bound — certain
  2. clip — to cut
  3. last — to go on
  4. kid — to tease
  5. wake — a trail
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. wind — moving air
  8. wake — to stop sleeping
  9. clip — a video
  10. wake — before a funeral
  11. mouse — the animal
  12. tear — from crying
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. last — finally
  15. bound — obliged
  16. mouse — the animal
  17. last — final
  18. kid — child
  19. wind — moving air
  20. tear — to rip
  21. mouse — for a computer
  22. tear — from crying
  23. bound — tied together
  24. clip — for paper

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