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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. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  2. That was a fun ________________.
  3. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  8. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  9. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  10. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  11. The ________________ market has crashed.
  12. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  13. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  14. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  15. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  16. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  19. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  24. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — for digging
  2. game — a match
  3. wake — a trail
  4. band — a music group
  5. snap — to click
  6. clip — for paper
  7. snap — to speak sharply
  8. stock — goods
  9. snap — to snap out of it
  10. wake — to stop sleeping
  11. stock — shares
  12. wake — before a funeral
  13. pit — in a race
  14. stock — a soup base
  15. pit — a hole
  16. band — a ring
  17. clip — to cut
  18. mine — belonging to me
  19. pit — a fruit stone
  20. clip — a video
  21. game — wild animals
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. mine — an explosive
  24. band — a rubber band

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