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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: snap · content · stock · clip · wound · field · tear · game

  1. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. The ________________ market has crashed.
  6. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  7. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  8. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  9. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  15. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  20. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  21. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. That was a fun ________________.
  24. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — past of 'wind'
  2. clip — to cut
  3. stock — a soup base
  4. field — farmland
  5. stock — shares
  6. wound — an injury
  7. wound — an injury
  8. snap — to click
  9. game — wild animals
  10. field — for sport
  11. content — the amount
  12. tear — from crying
  13. clip — for paper
  14. stock — goods
  15. game — a kind of play
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. tear — to rip
  18. clip — a video
  19. snap — to speak sharply
  20. content — happy
  21. tear — from crying
  22. field — a subject
  23. game — a match
  24. snap — to snap out of it

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