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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. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  2. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  7. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  10. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  15. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  20. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  23. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  24. Many English words ________________ from Latin.

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

Answer key

  1. object — an aim
  2. row — to paddle
  3. chest — of your body
  4. leaves — to go away
  5. clip — to cut
  6. object — to protest
  7. leaves — lets stay
  8. game — a match
  9. chest — a box
  10. band — a rubber band
  11. row — a line
  12. leaves — of a tree
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. row — a quarrel
  15. stem — of a plant
  16. game — wild animals
  17. chest — of your body
  18. clip — a video
  19. object — a thing
  20. band — a music group
  21. clip — for paper
  22. stem — a stem cell
  23. band — a ring
  24. stem — to come from

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