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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 120 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: pound · ground · bat · wake · mug · chest · stem · clip

  1. There's no middle ________________.
  2. Where did you ________________ them?
  3. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  4. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  5. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  6. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  19. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  22. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  23. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  24. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — a position
  2. mug — to rob
  3. wake — a trail
  4. stem — of a plant
  5. pound — for dogs
  6. chest — a box
  7. chest — of your body
  8. mug — a cup
  9. clip — a video
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. clip — to cut
  12. stem — to come from
  13. bat — the animal
  14. wake — to stop sleeping
  15. clip — for paper
  16. wake — before a funeral
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. mug — a face
  19. ground — crushed
  20. chest — of your body
  21. pound — a weight
  22. ground — the earth
  23. pound — to hit hard
  24. stem — a stem cell

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