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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. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  3. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  4. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  7. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  8. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  9. That was ________________ to happen.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  24. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. file — a line of people
  3. band — a music group
  4. fine — high quality
  5. wind — moving air
  6. file — a document
  7. wind — moving air
  8. fine — all right
  9. bound — certain
  10. cold — not warm
  11. band — a ring
  12. cold — an illness
  13. clip — for paper
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. land — to come down
  16. bound — tied together
  17. file — a tool
  18. land — ground
  19. clip — to cut
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. band — a rubber band
  22. clip — a video
  23. bound — obliged
  24. fine — a penalty

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