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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. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  6. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  7. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  8. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  11. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  12. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  13. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  14. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  17. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  18. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  19. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  20. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  23. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  24. Boris sat near the fire ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pit — a fruit stone
  2. clip — for paper
  3. chair — a professorship
  4. file — a tool
  5. scale — for weighing
  6. spring — of water
  7. cue — a signal
  8. drill — the tool
  9. clip — a video
  10. spring — a coil
  11. cue — a hint
  12. chair — to sit on
  13. cue — for pool
  14. scale — in music
  15. file — a document
  16. file — a line of people
  17. drill — army training
  18. drill — a practice
  19. spring — the season
  20. scale — size or range
  21. clip — to cut
  22. chair — a leader
  23. pit — in a race
  24. pit — a hole

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