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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 116 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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  8. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  11. He was locked up in a ________________.
  12. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  13. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  17. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  18. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. mine — for digging
  3. land — to come down
  4. clip — for paper
  5. rest — a break
  6. land — a country
  7. rest — what's left
  8. rest — what's left
  9. land — ground
  10. squash — to crush
  11. cell — in a prison
  12. mine — belonging to me
  13. cell — a phone
  14. clip — a video
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. squash — the sport
  17. cell — in biology
  18. squash — the vegetable

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