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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. We're on a ________________ here.
  8. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  9. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  10. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  11. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. Have you found your soul ________________?
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. It's one o'clock ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  20. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  21. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  24. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. mate — a friend
  3. clip — a video
  4. cold — an illness
  5. march — the month
  6. march — music
  7. roll — on a roll
  8. roll — a list
  9. sharp — with an edge
  10. sharp — clever
  11. mate — to breed
  12. hand — help
  13. mate — a partner
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. roll — a cake
  16. clip — to cut
  17. sharp — exactly
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. march — the month
  20. hand — in cards
  21. branch — of a bank
  22. cold — not warm
  23. branch — a division
  24. branch — of a tree

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