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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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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. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  2. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  3. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  8. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  9. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. How do you ________________ your surname?
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  15. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  16. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  19. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  22. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  23. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — to stop sleeping
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. row — a line
  4. clip — for paper
  5. clip — to cut
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. drill — a practice
  8. straw — a straw man
  9. drill — army training
  10. clip — a video
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. spell — letters
  13. file — a line of people
  14. spell — magic
  15. row — to paddle
  16. drill — the tool
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. fan — to cool the air
  19. fan — a supporter
  20. file — a tool
  21. wake — a trail
  22. spell — a short time
  23. wake — before a funeral
  24. file — a document

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