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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. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  4. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  7. The ________________ market has crashed.
  8. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  20. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  21. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  22. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.

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

Answer key

  1. scale — size or range
  2. cold — not warm
  3. stock — a soup base
  4. scale — for weighing
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. stock — goods
  7. stock — shares
  8. leaves — of a tree
  9. clip — to cut
  10. scale — in music
  11. capital — money
  12. wake — before a funeral
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. capital — a city
  15. leaves — to go away
  16. clip — a video
  17. cold — an illness
  18. clip — for paper
  19. wake — a trail
  20. leaves — lets stay
  21. wake — to stop sleeping
  22. mine — for digging
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. capital — a big letter

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