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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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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: clip · roll · lash · march · tear · hand · coach · wind

  1. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  2. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  3. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  4. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  5. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. Have you met the new head ________________?
  8. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  9. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  10. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  11. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  14. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  20. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  21. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  24. We're on a ________________ here.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — pulled by horses
  2. march — music
  3. tear — to rip
  4. march — the month
  5. lash — an eyelash
  6. tear — from crying
  7. coach — a trainer
  8. lash — to lash out
  9. tear — from crying
  10. lash — a whip stroke
  11. coach — a trainer
  12. clip — to cut
  13. wind — moving air
  14. roll — a cake
  15. clip — for paper
  16. roll — a list
  17. hand — help
  18. march — the month
  19. wind — moving air
  20. hand — in cards
  21. wind — to turn a key
  22. clip — a video
  23. hand — part of the body
  24. roll — on a roll

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