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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 120 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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Word bank
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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: straw · last · scale · ground · tear · mine · bear · clip

  1. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  5. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  6. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  7. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  8. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  9. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  10. False peace will not ________________.
  11. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  12. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  13. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  16. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  17. There's no middle ________________.
  18. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  19. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  22. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  23. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. clip — a video
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. tear — to rip
  5. bear — to put up with
  6. scale — size or range
  7. ground — crushed
  8. scale — for weighing
  9. ground — the earth
  10. last — to go on
  11. mine — belonging to me
  12. bear — the animal
  13. tear — from crying
  14. clip — for paper
  15. scale — in music
  16. bear — the animal
  17. ground — a position
  18. last — final
  19. straw — dry grass
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. tear — from crying
  22. straw — a straw man
  23. last — finally
  24. mine — for digging

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