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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. When are we going to ________________?
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  5. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  6. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  7. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  8. He is an ace ________________.
  9. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  13. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  19. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  20. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  21. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  22. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  23. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  24. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.

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

Answer key

  1. land — to come down
  2. land — a country
  3. clip — to cut
  4. band — a rubber band
  5. face — to confront
  6. face — part of the head
  7. object — to protest
  8. pitcher — in baseball
  9. object — a thing
  10. chest — of your body
  11. clip — for paper
  12. branch — a division
  13. chest — of your body
  14. land — ground
  15. branch — of a tree
  16. chest — a box
  17. clip — a video
  18. band — a music group
  19. object — an aim
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. face — to point toward
  22. pitcher — a jug
  23. band — a ring
  24. branch — of a bank

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