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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. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  5. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  6. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. We're on a ________________ here.
  12. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  24. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. band — a music group
  3. content — happy
  4. roll — a list
  5. track — to keep track
  6. shower — a meteor shower
  7. cold — not warm
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. track — a song
  10. shower — to wash
  11. roll — on a roll
  12. band — a ring
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. wound — past of 'wind'
  15. clip — for paper
  16. clip — a video
  17. wound — an injury
  18. content — the amount
  19. track — a path
  20. shower — rain
  21. cold — an illness
  22. wound — an injury
  23. band — a rubber band
  24. roll — a cake

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