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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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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: tear · game · stock · clip · wind · rest · kid · rule

  1. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  4. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  8. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  9. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  10. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  11. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  12. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  18. The ________________ market has crashed.
  19. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. clip — to cut
  3. rule — a law
  4. tear — from crying
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. game — wild animals
  7. game — a kind of play
  8. rest — a break
  9. rest — what's left
  10. stock — goods
  11. tear — from crying
  12. rule — to rule out
  13. wind — moving air
  14. stock — a soup base
  15. game — a match
  16. tear — to rip
  17. rule — government
  18. stock — shares
  19. wind — moving air
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. clip — a video
  22. rest — what's left
  23. clip — for paper
  24. kid — to tease

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