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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 116 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's one o'clock ________________.
  2. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  13. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  16. The ________________ took off on time.
  17. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  18. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — exactly
  2. straw — dry grass
  3. clip — to cut
  4. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  5. land — to come down
  6. file — a tool
  7. row — to paddle
  8. plane — a tool
  9. file — a document
  10. kid — child
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. plane — in geometry
  13. row — a quarrel
  14. kid — to tease
  15. sharp — clever
  16. plane — an aircraft
  17. row — a line
  18. sharp — with an edge
  19. clip — a video
  20. clip — for paper
  21. land — ground
  22. land — a country
  23. straw — a straw man
  24. file — a line of people

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