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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. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  2. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  3. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  9. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  17. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  22. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  23. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  24. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. present — a gift
  2. jam — to spread on bread
  3. jam — a tight spot
  4. clip — to cut
  5. perch — for a bird
  6. clip — for paper
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. present — the time now
  9. branch — of a bank
  10. field — a subject
  11. bat — the animal
  12. branch — of a tree
  13. field — for sport
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. field — farmland
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. perch — the fish
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. clip — a video
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. present — there
  22. branch — a division
  23. straw — a straw man
  24. jam — in traffic

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