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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: bowl · clip · tear · row · vault · chip

  1. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  3. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  4. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  9. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  14. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  15. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. tear — from crying
  3. vault — a safe
  4. chip — to eat
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. clip — for paper
  7. tear — from crying
  8. bowl — to roll
  9. row — a line
  10. clip — to cut
  11. vault — in gymnastics
  12. tear — to rip
  13. chip — for betting
  14. chip — in a computer
  15. vault — an arched ceiling
  16. clip — a video
  17. bowl — a football final
  18. row — to paddle

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