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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. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  5. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  6. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  12. Did you ________________ the meat?
  13. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  14. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  15. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  16. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  17. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  18. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  19. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  20. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  21. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. It's one o'clock ________________.
  24. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. can — a tin
  2. clip — to cut
  3. clip — for paper
  4. branch — a division
  5. branch — of a tree
  6. sharp — with an edge
  7. clip — a video
  8. sharp — clever
  9. cold — an illness
  10. cold — not warm
  11. perch — the fish
  12. season — to add flavour
  13. season — of the year
  14. can — a tin
  15. can — to be able to
  16. wake — to stop sleeping
  17. season — in sport
  18. branch — of a bank
  19. wake — a trail
  20. perch — for a bird
  21. wake — before a funeral
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. sharp — exactly
  24. perch — for a bird

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