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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. The ________________ market has crashed.
  3. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  10. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  16. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  22. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  23. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  24. ________________ you help me carry this box?

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. stock — shares
  3. net — after costs
  4. clip — a video
  5. bark — of a tree
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. can — a tin
  8. bat — the animal
  9. can — a tin
  10. bark — to shout
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. mine — belonging to me
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. hand — in cards
  15. stock — a soup base
  16. bark — a dog's sound
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. mine — for digging
  19. net — in sport
  20. clip — to cut
  21. hand — help
  22. stock — goods
  23. net — for catching
  24. can — to be able to

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