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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 120 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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. The King held a masked ________________.
  3. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  4. The ________________ market has crashed.
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  12. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  13. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  14. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  22. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  23. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  24. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. ball — a dance
  3. ball — a round shape
  4. stock — shares
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. clip — a video
  7. stock — a soup base
  8. spring — a coil
  9. stem — a stem cell
  10. chest — a box
  11. stem — to come from
  12. stem — of a plant
  13. chest — of your body
  14. stock — goods
  15. spring — the season
  16. spring — of water
  17. ball — a great time
  18. clip — for paper
  19. capital — a city
  20. capital — money
  21. present — the time now
  22. chest — of your body
  23. present — a gift
  24. present — there

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