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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: content · pitcher · shower · field · clip · leaves · straw · land

  1. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  7. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  10. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. He is an ace ________________.
  17. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  23. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  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. leaves — to go away
  2. land — ground
  3. content — videos and posts
  4. content — happy
  5. clip — a video
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. content — the amount
  8. field — for sport
  9. leaves — lets stay
  10. land — a country
  11. field — a subject
  12. land — to come down
  13. shower — rain
  14. leaves — of a tree
  15. field — farmland
  16. pitcher — in baseball
  17. shower — to wash
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. clip — to cut
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. straw — to clutch at straws
  23. straw — a straw man
  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