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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: current · toast · wake · ground · land · branch · spring · clip

  1. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  3. There's no middle ________________.
  4. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  9. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  10. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  11. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  16. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  17. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  18. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  21. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  22. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  23. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  24. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. toast — the most admired
  3. ground — a position
  4. branch — a division
  5. land — ground
  6. ground — the earth
  7. land — to come down
  8. wake — to stop sleeping
  9. ground — crushed
  10. toast — bread
  11. land — a country
  12. spring — the season
  13. spring — a coil
  14. clip — to cut
  15. current — electric
  16. branch — of a tree
  17. branch — of a bank
  18. toast — a drink to someone
  19. clip — a video
  20. current — happening now
  21. current — of water
  22. wake — a trail
  23. wake — before a funeral
  24. spring — of water

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