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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. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  8. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  9. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  22. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. clip — to cut
  3. tear — from crying
  4. shower — rain
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. tear — to rip
  7. snap — to speak sharply
  8. row — a quarrel
  9. mine — for digging
  10. spring — the season
  11. snap — to click
  12. spring — a coil
  13. clip — for paper
  14. racket — for tennis
  15. clip — a video
  16. spring — of water
  17. shower — to wash
  18. row — to paddle
  19. racket — for tennis
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. snap — to snap out of it
  22. tear — from crying
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. racket — a loud noise

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