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

  1. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  2. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  3. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  4. I'll be taking the ________________.
  5. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  6. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. When are we going to ________________?
  14. How do you ________________ your surname?
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. The ________________ market has crashed.
  19. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  23. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  24. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tube — a container
  2. tube — in a tire
  3. stock — goods
  4. tube — the underground
  5. spell — magic
  6. stock — a soup base
  7. land — ground
  8. pound — for dogs
  9. clip — to cut
  10. pound — to hit hard
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. clip — a video
  13. land — to come down
  14. spell — letters
  15. land — a country
  16. stem — a stem cell
  17. bat — the animal
  18. stock — shares
  19. stem — to come from
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. clip — for paper
  22. pound — a weight
  23. spell — a short time
  24. stem — of a plant

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