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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: clip · straw · bear · hand · race · tear · last · wave

  1. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  3. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  6. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  9. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  16. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  17. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. False peace will not ________________.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  22. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  23. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  24. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. last — finally
  3. bear — to put up with
  4. clip — to cut
  5. straw — a straw man
  6. wave — a sudden rise
  7. hand — help
  8. race — the arms race
  9. bear — the animal
  10. tear — from crying
  11. wave — of the sea
  12. clip — a video
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. hand — in cards
  15. race — a contest
  16. tear — from crying
  17. race — humankind
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. last — to go on
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. wave — with your hand
  22. tear — to rip
  23. bear — the animal
  24. last — final

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