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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. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  2. Did you ________________ the meat?
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  11. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  12. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  18. Have you found your soul ________________?
  19. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  20. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  21. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  22. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  23. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  24. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.

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

Answer key

  1. lean — to rest against
  2. season — to add flavour
  3. clip — for paper
  4. cold — an illness
  5. branch — of a bank
  6. field — a subject
  7. season — in sport
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. field — farmland
  10. branch — of a tree
  11. mate — to breed
  12. bear — the animal
  13. clip — to cut
  14. field — for sport
  15. cold — not warm
  16. clip — a video
  17. bear — the animal
  18. mate — a partner
  19. lean — thin
  20. mate — a friend
  21. season — of the year
  22. branch — a division
  23. bear — to put up with
  24. lean — to bend

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