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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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Word bank
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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. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  2. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  3. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  4. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  5. The tickets are free of ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  9. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  14. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  15. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  18. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  19. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  20. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  24. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.

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

Answer key

  1. toast — bread
  2. snap — to snap out of it
  3. cell — a phone
  4. perch — the fish
  5. charge — a price
  6. clip — to cut
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. branch — of a tree
  9. snap — to speak sharply
  10. cold — not warm
  11. charge — electricity
  12. cold — an illness
  13. cell — in biology
  14. snap — to click
  15. toast — the most admired
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. branch — of a bank
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. charge — in control
  20. branch — a division
  21. clip — a video
  22. clip — for paper
  23. perch — for a bird
  24. toast — a drink to someone

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