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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 girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. That was ________________ to happen.
  4. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  5. The ________________ market has crashed.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  8. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  11. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  14. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  17. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  22. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  23. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. clip — a video
  3. bound — certain
  4. stock — a soup base
  5. stock — shares
  6. clip — to cut
  7. leaves — of a tree
  8. straw — a straw man
  9. hand — in cards
  10. row — to paddle
  11. hand — help
  12. cold — an illness
  13. row — a quarrel
  14. straw — to clutch at straws
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. leaves — lets stay
  17. stock — goods
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. bound — obliged
  20. cold — not warm
  21. leaves — to go away
  22. straw — dry grass
  23. bound — tied together
  24. clip — for paper

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