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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. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  2. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  3. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  9. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  10. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  11. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  12. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  13. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  14. It's one o'clock ________________.
  15. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  16. I'll be taking the ________________.
  17. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  20. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  23. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. tube — a container
  2. wave — of the sea
  3. branch — a division
  4. cold — not warm
  5. branch — of a tree
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. clip — for paper
  8. branch — of a bank
  9. sharp — clever
  10. wave — a sudden rise
  11. pound — to hit hard
  12. net — after costs
  13. sharp — with an edge
  14. sharp — exactly
  15. net — in sport
  16. tube — the underground
  17. net — for catching
  18. cold — an illness
  19. wave — with your hand
  20. tube — in a tire
  21. clip — to cut
  22. pound — for dogs
  23. pound — a weight
  24. clip — a video

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