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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. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  5. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  6. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  7. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  8. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  11. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  12. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  13. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  14. The ________________ market has crashed.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  17. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. mate — a friend
  3. clip — to cut
  4. fall — to drop
  5. stick — a piece of wood
  6. fall — to drop
  7. stock — a soup base
  8. fall — the season
  9. wind — moving air
  10. wind — to turn a key
  11. mate — to breed
  12. stock — goods
  13. stick — a piece of wood
  14. stock — shares
  15. clip — for paper
  16. wind — moving air
  17. mine — belonging to me
  18. mine — for digging
  19. stick — to attach or keep to
  20. field — farmland
  21. clip — a video
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. field — a subject
  24. field — for sport

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