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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 116 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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  3. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  4. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  5. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  6. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  7. The ________________ market has crashed.
  8. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  9. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  10. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  11. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  14. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  18. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  19. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  20. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. She had a strange look on her ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. wake — to stop sleeping
  3. board — a flat piece
  4. face — to confront
  5. board — a committee
  6. stock — a soup base
  7. stock — shares
  8. branch — a division
  9. squash — the sport
  10. stock — goods
  11. wake — before a funeral
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. wake — a trail
  14. branch — of a tree
  15. cold — an illness
  16. clip — to cut
  17. board — to get on
  18. face — to point toward
  19. squash — the vegetable
  20. squash — to crush
  21. clip — a video
  22. branch — of a bank
  23. cold — not warm
  24. face — part of the head

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