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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. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  2. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  3. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  4. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. The ________________ market has crashed.
  7. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  8. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. False peace will not ________________.
  12. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  18. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  21. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  24. She had a strange look on her ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — finally
  2. track — to keep track
  3. face — to point toward
  4. chair — to sit on
  5. clip — for paper
  6. stock — shares
  7. chair — a professorship
  8. stock — a soup base
  9. clip — to cut
  10. clip — a video
  11. last — to go on
  12. face — to confront
  13. hand — in cards
  14. hand — help
  15. file — a document
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. chair — a leader
  18. last — final
  19. file — a tool
  20. track — a song
  21. stock — goods
  22. file — a line of people
  23. track — a path
  24. face — part of the head

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