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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 was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  2. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  3. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  4. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  16. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  17. The ________________ market has crashed.
  18. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  19. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  20. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  23. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  24. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. mine — an explosive
  3. pound — a weight
  4. pound — for dogs
  5. wind — moving air
  6. clip — a video
  7. kid — child
  8. shower — rain
  9. clip — to cut
  10. prune — the fruit
  11. clip — for paper
  12. mine — for digging
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. stock — goods
  16. shower — a meteor shower
  17. stock — shares
  18. mine — belonging to me
  19. pound — to hit hard
  20. stock — a soup base
  21. kid — to tease
  22. prune — to trim
  23. shower — to wash
  24. prune — to trim

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