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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. That was a fun ________________.
  2. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  6. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  7. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  8. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  9. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  10. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  11. David sat on the ________________.
  12. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. The ________________ market has crashed.
  18. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  19. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  20. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  21. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a match
  2. fall — the season
  3. clip — a video
  4. clip — for paper
  5. march — the month
  6. net — for catching
  7. straw — a straw man
  8. swing — music
  9. march — the month
  10. stock — goods
  11. swing — to play on
  12. stock — a soup base
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. clip — to cut
  15. game — wild animals
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. stock — shares
  18. swing — in golf
  19. fall — to drop
  20. net — in sport
  21. net — after costs
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. fall — to drop
  24. march — music

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