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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. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  5. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  6. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  11. Don't do anything ________________.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  18. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  23. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  24. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.

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

Answer key

  1. root — of a word
  2. net — after costs
  3. clip — a video
  4. fall — to drop
  5. rash — on the skin
  6. net — for catching
  7. spring — a coil
  8. land — a country
  9. spring — of water
  10. row — a quarrel
  11. rash — hasty
  12. clip — for paper
  13. rash — a series
  14. spring — the season
  15. land — ground
  16. row — to paddle
  17. root — the cause
  18. fall — to drop
  19. row — a line
  20. clip — to cut
  21. land — to come down
  22. fall — the season
  23. net — in sport
  24. root — of a plant

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