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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: cold · bear · rest · net · stock · clip · spring · cell

  1. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  5. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  11. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  12. The ________________ market has crashed.
  13. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. He was locked up in a ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  21. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  22. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  23. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. bear — the animal
  3. cold — an illness
  4. rest — what's left
  5. bear — the animal
  6. cell — a phone
  7. rest — a break
  8. spring — the season
  9. cold — not warm
  10. net — in sport
  11. stock — a soup base
  12. stock — shares
  13. rest — what's left
  14. cell — in biology
  15. net — for catching
  16. spring — of water
  17. clip — for paper
  18. cell — in a prison
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. net — after costs
  21. spring — a coil
  22. bear — to put up with
  23. stock — goods
  24. clip — a video

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