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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. Have you met the new head ________________?
  2. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  7. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  8. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  9. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  10. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  11. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  12. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  13. When are we going to ________________?
  14. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  15. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  16. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  17. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  18. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  19. The ________________ market has crashed.
  20. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  21. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — a trainer
  2. prune — to trim
  3. chair — a leader
  4. land — a country
  5. clip — a video
  6. coach — pulled by horses
  7. chair — a professorship
  8. tear — from crying
  9. stock — goods
  10. march — music
  11. march — the month
  12. march — the month
  13. land — to come down
  14. coach — a trainer
  15. stock — a soup base
  16. tear — from crying
  17. chair — to sit on
  18. land — ground
  19. stock — shares
  20. tear — to rip
  21. prune — the fruit
  22. clip — to cut
  23. clip — for paper
  24. prune — to trim

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