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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: mark · shower · saw · clip · spring · present · date · land

  1. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  2. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  3. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  4. When are we going to ________________?
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  7. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. She's very handy with a ________________.
  12. Have you settled on a ________________?
  13. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  20. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  21. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. He works in a ________________ mill.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — a video
  2. date — on the calendar
  3. present — a gift
  4. land — to come down
  5. land — ground
  6. date — the fruit
  7. saw — past of 'see'
  8. shower — rain
  9. mark — a trace
  10. shower — to wash
  11. saw — the tool
  12. date — on the calendar
  13. present — the time now
  14. clip — for paper
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. land — a country
  17. spring — the season
  18. spring — a coil
  19. mark — to pay attention
  20. mark — a grade
  21. present — there
  22. spring — of water
  23. saw — the tool
  24. clip — to cut

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