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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. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  2. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. Don't do anything ________________.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  10. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  11. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  12. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. The ________________ market has crashed.
  15. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  21. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  22. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  23. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — a video
  2. stock — goods
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. stock — a soup base
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. rash — hasty
  7. clip — for paper
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. row — a line
  10. pit — a fruit stone
  11. mine — for digging
  12. pit — a hole
  13. clip — to cut
  14. stock — shares
  15. rash — on the skin
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. rash — a series
  18. bat — the animal
  19. row — to paddle
  20. track — a song
  21. track — a path
  22. track — to keep track
  23. pit — in a race
  24. bat — for baseball

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