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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: field · snap · tear · race · hide · capital · clip · march

  1. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  2. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  3. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  4. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  8. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  9. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  13. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  17. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  24. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.

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

Answer key

  1. race — a contest
  2. tear — from crying
  3. hide — to keep secret
  4. hide — animal skin
  5. march — the month
  6. field — farmland
  7. race — humankind
  8. hide — to keep secret
  9. snap — to click
  10. clip — to cut
  11. march — the month
  12. snap — to snap out of it
  13. snap — to speak sharply
  14. capital — a city
  15. field — for sport
  16. tear — from crying
  17. race — the arms race
  18. capital — money
  19. field — a subject
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. clip — for paper
  22. clip — a video
  23. march — music
  24. tear — to rip

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