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

  1. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  2. My father caught me by the ________________.
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. The ________________ market has crashed.
  6. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — a box
  2. arm — part of the body
  3. land — a country
  4. land — ground
  5. stock — shares
  6. arm — part of the body
  7. clip — for paper
  8. mine — for digging
  9. chest — of your body
  10. land — to come down
  11. chest — of your body
  12. clip — to cut
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. arm — a part of something
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. stock — a soup base
  17. clip — a video
  18. stock — goods

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