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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. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  3. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  4. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  7. The ________________ market has crashed.
  8. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  9. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  18. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  23. He was locked up in a ________________.
  24. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. stock — a soup base
  4. bark — to shout
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. fan — to cool the air
  7. stock — shares
  8. net — for catching
  9. cell — a phone
  10. clip — for paper
  11. cell — in biology
  12. kid — child
  13. kid — to tease
  14. spring — the season
  15. stock — goods
  16. clip — a video
  17. net — after costs
  18. fan — a supporter
  19. spring — of water
  20. clip — to cut
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. net — in sport
  23. cell — in a prison
  24. bark — a dog's sound

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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