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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 116 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. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  2. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  4. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  5. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  6. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  7. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  10. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  11. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  12. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  13. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  14. That was a fun ________________.
  15. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. There's no middle ________________.
  24. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — for digging
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. scale — in music
  4. track — a path
  5. scale — for weighing
  6. stem — of a plant
  7. stem — a stem cell
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. mine — belonging to me
  10. stem — to come from
  11. track — to keep track
  12. ground — crushed
  13. hand — help
  14. game — a match
  15. ground — the earth
  16. game — wild animals
  17. hand — in cards
  18. scale — size or range
  19. clip — to cut
  20. clip — for paper
  21. game — a kind of play
  22. clip — a video
  23. ground — a position
  24. track — a song

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