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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. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  3. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  4. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  5. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  6. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  7. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  8. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  11. Have you settled on a ________________?
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. False peace will not ________________.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. How do you ________________ your surname?
  21. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  22. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. branch — of a bank
  3. fine — all right
  4. branch — a division
  5. fine — a penalty
  6. fine — high quality
  7. date — the fruit
  8. last — finally
  9. field — for sport
  10. last — final
  11. date — on the calendar
  12. clip — a video
  13. clip — to cut
  14. spell — a short time
  15. spell — magic
  16. clip — for paper
  17. game — a match
  18. last — to go on
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. spell — letters
  21. field — farmland
  22. date — on the calendar
  23. field — a subject
  24. branch — of a tree

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