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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: leaves · perch · tear · hand · object · kid · stick · file

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  3. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  6. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  11. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  14. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  15. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  16. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  17. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  18. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  23. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. stick — a piece of wood
  3. leaves — to go away
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. stick — a piece of wood
  6. leaves — lets stay
  7. hand — in cards
  8. tear — to rip
  9. tear — from crying
  10. leaves — of a tree
  11. object — to protest
  12. hand — help
  13. perch — for a bird
  14. object — an aim
  15. stick — to attach or keep to
  16. tear — from crying
  17. object — a thing
  18. file — a tool
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. kid — child
  21. file — a line of people
  22. perch — for a bird
  23. perch — the fish
  24. file — a document

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