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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  9. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  10. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  11. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  12. He is an ace ________________.
  13. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  14. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  21. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  22. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  23. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  24. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. tear — from crying
  4. clip — to cut
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. race — a contest
  7. clip — a video
  8. pit — a fruit stone
  9. pit — in a race
  10. deal — a big deal
  11. tear — from crying
  12. pitcher — in baseball
  13. wake — before a funeral
  14. wake — to stop sleeping
  15. cold — not warm
  16. pit — a hole
  17. cold — an illness
  18. pitcher — a jug
  19. tear — to rip
  20. race — humankind
  21. wake — a trail
  22. deal — an agreement
  23. race — the arms race
  24. deal — to handle

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