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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. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  4. She's very handy with a ________________.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  7. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  8. He works in a ________________ mill.
  9. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  10. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. The ________________ market has crashed.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  20. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  21. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. David sat on the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — goods
  2. clip — for paper
  3. patient — calm and waiting
  4. saw — the tool
  5. file — a tool
  6. patient — a sick person
  7. patient — a sick person
  8. saw — the tool
  9. stem — to come from
  10. swing — in golf
  11. cold — not warm
  12. stem — of a plant
  13. cold — an illness
  14. swing — music
  15. clip — a video
  16. clip — to cut
  17. stock — shares
  18. file — a line of people
  19. stem — a stem cell
  20. saw — past of 'see'
  21. stock — a soup base
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. file — a document
  24. swing — to play on

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