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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 116 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 ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  2. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  6. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  10. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  13. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  14. I'll be taking the ________________.
  15. David sat on the ________________.
  16. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  20. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. pit — a fruit stone
  2. swing — in golf
  3. clip — a video
  4. cold — not warm
  5. land — a country
  6. branch — of a tree
  7. land — to come down
  8. spring — a coil
  9. pit — in a race
  10. swing — music
  11. cold — an illness
  12. tube — a container
  13. branch — of a bank
  14. tube — the underground
  15. swing — to play on
  16. tube — in a tire
  17. spring — of water
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. spring — the season
  20. branch — a division
  21. land — ground
  22. clip — for paper
  23. pit — a hole
  24. clip — to cut

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