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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: perch · clip · root · track · hand · field · net · squash

  1. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  2. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  3. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  8. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  9. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  10. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  11. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  16. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  22. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  23. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  24. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — in cards
  2. track — to keep track
  3. perch — the fish
  4. field — a subject
  5. net — for catching
  6. clip — to cut
  7. perch — for a bird
  8. squash — the vegetable
  9. net — in sport
  10. net — after costs
  11. track — a path
  12. clip — for paper
  13. squash — to crush
  14. field — for sport
  15. squash — the sport
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. hand — help
  19. clip — a video
  20. field — farmland
  21. root — of a plant
  22. root — the cause
  23. root — of a word
  24. track — a song

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