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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. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  2. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  5. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  6. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  9. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  10. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  16. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  19. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  22. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?

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

Answer key

  1. lean — to bend
  2. lean — thin
  3. clip — for paper
  4. present — the time now
  5. branch — a division
  6. branch — of a tree
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. cell — a phone
  9. branch — of a bank
  10. pound — to hit hard
  11. clip — to cut
  12. cell — in biology
  13. shower — to wash
  14. clip — a video
  15. race — a contest
  16. race — the arms race
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. present — there
  19. lean — to rest against
  20. shower — rain
  21. pound — for dogs
  22. pound — a weight
  23. race — humankind
  24. present — a gift

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