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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. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  16. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  17. This piece is in a major ________________.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  22. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  23. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  24. Did you ________________ the meat?

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to snap out of it
  2. season — in sport
  3. snap — to click
  4. snap — to speak sharply
  5. cold — not warm
  6. key — for a lock
  7. file — a line of people
  8. key — the most important part
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. clip — a video
  11. wind — moving air
  12. cold — an illness
  13. file — a document
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. pit — in a race
  16. season — of the year
  17. key — in music
  18. clip — to cut
  19. file — a tool
  20. clip — for paper
  21. pit — a fruit stone
  22. wind — moving air
  23. pit — a hole
  24. season — to add flavour

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