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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  3. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  4. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  5. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  6. It's one o'clock ________________.
  7. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  8. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  9. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  10. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  11. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  12. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  20. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  24. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. wind — to turn a key
  3. bore — gave birth
  4. current — of water
  5. bore — to tire
  6. sharp — exactly
  7. sharp — with an edge
  8. prune — the fruit
  9. root — the cause
  10. prune — to trim
  11. current — electric
  12. sharp — clever
  13. cold — not warm
  14. root — of a word
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. wind — moving air
  17. cold — an illness
  18. clip — to cut
  19. bore — to drill
  20. prune — to trim
  21. wind — moving air
  22. clip — a video
  23. root — of a plant
  24. current — happening now

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