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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. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  4. When are we going to ________________?
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. He works in a ________________ mill.
  7. She's very handy with a ________________.
  8. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  9. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  10. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. False peace will not ________________.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  16. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  17. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  18. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  19. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  20. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  21. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  22. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — a video
  2. clip — to cut
  3. stem — of a plant
  4. land — to come down
  5. land — ground
  6. saw — the tool
  7. saw — the tool
  8. pound — for dogs
  9. stem — to come from
  10. saw — past of 'see'
  11. cold — not warm
  12. clip — for paper
  13. last — to go on
  14. land — a country
  15. last — finally
  16. pound — a weight
  17. race — a contest
  18. stem — a stem cell
  19. race — humankind
  20. last — final
  21. pound — to hit hard
  22. race — the arms race
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. cold — an illness

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