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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. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  2. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  6. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  7. How do you ________________ your surname?
  8. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. The ________________ market has crashed.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  19. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  20. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  21. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  22. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  23. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. leaves — to go away
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. spell — a short time
  4. clip — a video
  5. mark — a grade
  6. stock — a soup base
  7. spell — letters
  8. object — to protest
  9. cold — not warm
  10. object — an aim
  11. clip — for paper
  12. mark — to pay attention
  13. row — to paddle
  14. stock — shares
  15. clip — to cut
  16. stock — goods
  17. cold — an illness
  18. mark — a trace
  19. leaves — of a tree
  20. object — a thing
  21. spell — magic
  22. leaves — lets stay
  23. row — a line
  24. cold — the Cold War

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