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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. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  4. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  5. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  6. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  9. How do you ________________ your surname?
  10. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  11. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  12. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  15. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  16. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  17. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  18. That was a fun ________________.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  24. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. snap — to click
  3. spell — magic
  4. perch — for a bird
  5. snap — to snap out of it
  6. face — to point toward
  7. clip — for paper
  8. squash — the sport
  9. spell — letters
  10. squash — the vegetable
  11. tear — to rip
  12. tear — from crying
  13. clip — a video
  14. game — wild animals
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. squash — to crush
  17. spell — a short time
  18. game — a match
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. clip — to cut
  21. perch — the fish
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. face — part of the head
  24. face — to confront

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