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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 120 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: kick · wound · tear · bound · saw · swing · kid · clip

  1. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  2. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  3. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  4. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  5. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. David sat on the ________________.
  9. That was ________________ to happen.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. She's very handy with a ________________.
  14. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  17. He works in a ________________ mill.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  24. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. kick — with a leg
  3. swing — in golf
  4. kick — a thrill
  5. wound — an injury
  6. kid — child
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. swing — to play on
  9. bound — certain
  10. clip — to cut
  11. wound — past of 'wind'
  12. clip — for paper
  13. saw — the tool
  14. kick — in football
  15. tear — from crying
  16. swing — music
  17. saw — the tool
  18. clip — a video
  19. tear — to rip
  20. bound — obliged
  21. kid — to tease
  22. wound — an injury
  23. bound — tied together
  24. saw — past of 'see'

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