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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: race · land · branch · clip · pop · file · date · net

  1. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  3. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  4. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. You don't need to ________________ round.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  9. When are we going to ________________?
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  12. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  13. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  14. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  15. Have you settled on a ________________?
  16. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. We're almost out of ________________.
  19. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  22. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  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 — a country
  2. branch — of a tree
  3. pop — music
  4. net — for catching
  5. clip — to cut
  6. pop — to visit
  7. file — a line of people
  8. net — after costs
  9. land — to come down
  10. clip — for paper
  11. date — on the calendar
  12. race — a contest
  13. race — humankind
  14. net — in sport
  15. date — on the calendar
  16. land — ground
  17. clip — a video
  18. pop — soda
  19. race — the arms race
  20. file — a tool
  21. date — the fruit
  22. branch — a division
  23. file — a document
  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