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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. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  2. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. The ball is in your ________________.
  5. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  6. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  7. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  8. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  11. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  12. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  23. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. foot — a measure
  2. game — wild animals
  3. tear — from crying
  4. court — for sport
  5. hide — animal skin
  6. foot — the bottom
  7. court — of law
  8. shower — to wash
  9. game — a match
  10. shower — a meteor shower
  11. hide — to keep secret
  12. hide — to keep secret
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. shower — rain
  15. chest — of your body
  16. clip — to cut
  17. tear — to rip
  18. clip — for paper
  19. court — of a king
  20. chest — of your body
  21. chest — a box
  22. tear — from crying
  23. foot — part of the body
  24. clip — a video

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