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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. She's very handy with a ________________.
  2. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  6. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  7. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  8. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  9. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  12. He works in a ________________ mill.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  15. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  16. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  17. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  18. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  19. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  20. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  21. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  22. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  23. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  24. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.

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

Answer key

  1. saw — the tool
  2. band — a ring
  3. wind — moving air
  4. clip — a video
  5. cap — a hat
  6. branch — of a tree
  7. prune — to trim
  8. cap — a lid
  9. branch — a division
  10. clip — for paper
  11. pit — a hole
  12. saw — the tool
  13. clip — to cut
  14. prune — to trim
  15. saw — past of 'see'
  16. band — a music group
  17. cap — of ice
  18. wind — moving air
  19. pit — a fruit stone
  20. band — a rubber band
  21. branch — of a bank
  22. prune — the fruit
  23. wind — to turn a key
  24. pit — in a race

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