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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. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  2. The ________________ market has crashed.
  3. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  8. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  9. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  10. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  13. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  14. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  15. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  20. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  21. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  22. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  23. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  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. board — a committee
  2. stock — shares
  3. stem — to come from
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. clip — for paper
  6. land — to come down
  7. stock — a soup base
  8. land — ground
  9. land — a country
  10. capital — a city
  11. clip — to cut
  12. drill — a practice
  13. drill — army training
  14. board — a flat piece
  15. stem — a stem cell
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. capital — money
  18. clip — a video
  19. board — to get on
  20. cell — a phone
  21. cell — in biology
  22. drill — the tool
  23. stock — goods
  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