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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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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 · march · squash · kid · shower · file · pound · clip

  1. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  2. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  19. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. file — a line of people
  3. shower — to wash
  4. tear — from crying
  5. kid — child
  6. squash — to crush
  7. clip — for paper
  8. squash — the sport
  9. file — a document
  10. kid — to tease
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. pound — a weight
  13. clip — to cut
  14. pound — for dogs
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. squash — the vegetable
  17. tear — to rip
  18. shower — rain
  19. pound — to hit hard
  20. file — a tool
  21. clip — a video
  22. march — the month
  23. tear — from crying
  24. march — music

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