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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. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  2. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  4. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  5. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  6. There's no middle ________________.
  7. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  8. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  9. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  12. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  15. David sat on the ________________.
  16. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  17. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  18. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. dip — to dunk
  2. spring — of water
  3. perch — for a bird
  4. swing — in golf
  5. swing — music
  6. ground — a position
  7. row — a line
  8. stem — to come from
  9. ground — the earth
  10. clip — to cut
  11. stem — of a plant
  12. dip — a sauce
  13. spring — the season
  14. row — a quarrel
  15. swing — to play on
  16. dip — to sink
  17. ground — crushed
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. row — to paddle
  20. perch — the fish
  21. clip — for paper
  22. spring — a coil
  23. stem — a stem cell
  24. clip — a video

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