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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 had a ________________ with my boss today.
  2. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  3. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  6. False peace will not ________________.
  7. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  8. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  9. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  10. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  11. It's one o'clock ________________.
  12. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  13. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  14. When are we going to ________________?
  15. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. When was this ________________ built?
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. temple — a place of worship
  3. hide — to keep secret
  4. row — a line
  5. last — final
  6. last — to go on
  7. branch — of a bank
  8. branch — of a tree
  9. temple — side of the head
  10. hide — animal skin
  11. sharp — exactly
  12. hide — to keep secret
  13. sharp — clever
  14. land — to come down
  15. last — finally
  16. clip — to cut
  17. branch — a division
  18. clip — for paper
  19. land — a country
  20. temple — a place of worship
  21. land — ground
  22. sharp — with an edge
  23. clip — a video
  24. row — to paddle

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