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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: clip · rest · date · hand · present · land · plane · spring

  1. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  4. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  8. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  9. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  10. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  14. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  15. Have you settled on a ________________?
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  18. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  19. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. The ________________ took off on time.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. clip — for paper
  3. rest — a break
  4. rest — what's left
  5. spring — the season
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. present — a gift
  8. date — the fruit
  9. present — the time now
  10. land — a country
  11. hand — in cards
  12. spring — a coil
  13. hand — help
  14. rest — what's left
  15. date — on the calendar
  16. land — to come down
  17. plane — a tool
  18. present — there
  19. date — on the calendar
  20. spring — of water
  21. plane — in geometry
  22. clip — to cut
  23. plane — an aircraft
  24. clip — a video

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