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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 116 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: cell · tear · clip · sharp · kid · band · fork · swing

  1. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  4. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  5. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  6. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  7. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  8. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  9. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  10. David sat on the ________________.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  13. It's one o'clock ________________.
  14. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  15. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — a video
  2. kid — to tease
  3. fork — a garden tool
  4. band — a rubber band
  5. band — a music group
  6. sharp — clever
  7. swing — in golf
  8. fork — in a road
  9. swing — music
  10. swing — to play on
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. fork — to eat with
  13. sharp — exactly
  14. tear — from crying
  15. band — a ring
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. tear — from crying
  18. clip — to cut
  19. kid — child
  20. cell — a phone
  21. tear — to rip
  22. clip — for paper
  23. sharp — with an edge
  24. cell — in biology

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