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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  5. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  8. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  9. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  10. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  13. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  14. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  15. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  18. That was a fun ________________.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. The ________________ market has crashed.
  21. We're on a ________________ here.
  22. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  23. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  24. Many English words ________________ from Latin.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. land — a country
  4. roll — a cake
  5. game — wild animals
  6. clip — to cut
  7. stem — a stem cell
  8. band — a ring
  9. stem — of a plant
  10. perch — for a bird
  11. land — ground
  12. roll — a list
  13. band — a music group
  14. perch — the fish
  15. game — a kind of play
  16. clip — a video
  17. stock — goods
  18. game — a match
  19. land — to come down
  20. stock — shares
  21. roll — on a roll
  22. band — a rubber band
  23. stock — a soup base
  24. stem — to come from

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