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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 120 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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  5. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. How do you ________________ your surname?
  12. Did you ________________ the meat?
  13. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  17. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  18. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. file — a document
  3. file — a tool
  4. tear — from crying
  5. spell — magic
  6. clip — a video
  7. land — to come down
  8. band — a music group
  9. cold — not warm
  10. file — a line of people
  11. spell — letters
  12. season — to add flavour
  13. season — of the year
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. land — a country
  16. tear — from crying
  17. spell — a short time
  18. season — in sport
  19. clip — to cut
  20. band — a rubber band
  21. clip — for paper
  22. tear — to rip
  23. land — ground
  24. band — a ring

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