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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: squash · chest · tear · stem · clip · present

  1. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  4. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  8. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  9. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  10. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  15. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  16. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  17. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. chest — of your body
  3. squash — the vegetable
  4. squash — the sport
  5. clip — to cut
  6. tear — to rip
  7. present — a gift
  8. stem — to come from
  9. stem — of a plant
  10. stem — a stem cell
  11. chest — a box
  12. squash — to crush
  13. clip — for paper
  14. chest — of your body
  15. tear — from crying
  16. present — there
  17. present — the time now
  18. clip — a video

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