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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 don't want to ________________ the boat.
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. David sat on the ________________.
  4. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  9. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  10. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  11. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  12. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  13. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  14. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.

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

Answer key

  1. rock — to move gently
  2. land — a country
  3. swing — to play on
  4. swing — in golf
  5. spring — the season
  6. land — ground
  7. prune — to trim
  8. perch — for a bird
  9. prune — the fruit
  10. swing — music
  11. perch — the fish
  12. perch — for a bird
  13. prune — to trim
  14. rock — music
  15. clip — for paper
  16. mine — an explosive
  17. land — to come down
  18. spring — of water
  19. clip — to cut
  20. mine — for digging
  21. clip — a video
  22. rock — a stone
  23. spring — a coil
  24. mine — belonging to me

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