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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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  3. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  4. The ________________ market has crashed.
  5. He was locked up in a ________________.
  6. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  7. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  10. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  11. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  12. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  13. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  14. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  17. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  19. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  20. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  21. The ball is in your ________________.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  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. clip — to cut
  2. court — of law
  3. snap — to snap out of it
  4. stock — shares
  5. cell — in a prison
  6. snap — to click
  7. trunk — of a car
  8. clip — a video
  9. cell — in biology
  10. stock — a soup base
  11. trunk — of a tree
  12. face — to point toward
  13. mine — for digging
  14. stock — goods
  15. clip — for paper
  16. snap — to speak sharply
  17. trunk — of an elephant
  18. court — of a king
  19. face — to confront
  20. face — part of the head
  21. court — for sport
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. cell — a phone
  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