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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. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  2. There's no middle ________________.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  6. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  7. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  12. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  21. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  22. The ________________ market has crashed.
  23. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  24. Biology is a ________________ of science.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — a soup base
  2. ground — a position
  3. clip — a video
  4. content — happy
  5. snap — to snap out of it
  6. snap — to speak sharply
  7. ground — crushed
  8. degree — temperature
  9. clip — for paper
  10. degree — from a university
  11. spring — of water
  12. stock — goods
  13. degree — an amount
  14. snap — to click
  15. spring — a coil
  16. spring — the season
  17. content — the amount
  18. clip — to cut
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. ground — the earth
  21. branch — of a bank
  22. stock — shares
  23. branch — of a tree
  24. branch — a division

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