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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. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  2. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  3. You don't need to ________________ round.
  4. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. Did you ________________ the meat?
  7. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  8. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  9. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  10. We're almost out of ________________.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  16. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  19. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. How do you ________________ your surname?
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.

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

Answer key

  1. track — a song
  2. spell — a short time
  3. pop — to visit
  4. season — of the year
  5. file — a tool
  6. season — to add flavour
  7. season — in sport
  8. bark — of a tree
  9. file — a line of people
  10. pop — soda
  11. wind — moving air
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. pop — music
  14. wind — moving air
  15. bark — to shout
  16. spell — magic
  17. cold — an illness
  18. track — to keep track
  19. bark — a dog's sound
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. cold — not warm
  22. spell — letters
  23. file — a document
  24. track — a path

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