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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: wind · tear · saw · chest · march · file · clip · squash

  1. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  5. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  6. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  9. She's very handy with a ________________.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  12. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  13. He works in a ________________ mill.
  14. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  15. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  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. chest — of your body
  3. clip — to cut
  4. squash — the sport
  5. tear — from crying
  6. file — a line of people
  7. clip — a video
  8. chest — a box
  9. saw — the tool
  10. file — a tool
  11. tear — to rip
  12. chest — of your body
  13. saw — the tool
  14. wind — moving air
  15. squash — to crush
  16. file — a document
  17. saw — past of 'see'
  18. march — the month
  19. clip — for paper
  20. wind — moving air
  21. tear — from crying
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. squash — the vegetable
  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