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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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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. She's very handy with a ________________.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. False peace will not ________________.
  10. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  15. He works in a ________________ mill.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  20. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  21. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. bowl — a football final
  3. field — a subject
  4. object — to protest
  5. file — a line of people
  6. shower — to wash
  7. saw — the tool
  8. field — for sport
  9. last — to go on
  10. last — finally
  11. file — a tool
  12. last — final
  13. clip — a video
  14. object — an aim
  15. saw — the tool
  16. file — a document
  17. shower — rain
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. bowl — a dish
  20. object — a thing
  21. bowl — to roll
  22. field — farmland
  23. saw — past of 'see'
  24. clip — for paper

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