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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: bat · spell · bore · tear · content · clip · dip · chest

  1. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  12. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  13. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  24. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bore — to tire
  2. clip — a video
  3. chest — of your body
  4. spell — letters
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. dip — a sauce
  7. clip — to cut
  8. clip — for paper
  9. spell — a short time
  10. tear — from crying
  11. bore — gave birth
  12. dip — to sink
  13. dip — to dunk
  14. bat — the animal
  15. chest — of your body
  16. tear — to rip
  17. content — the amount
  18. bore — to drill
  19. tear — from crying
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. chest — a box
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. spell — magic
  24. content — happy

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