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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 seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  9. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  10. False peace will not ________________.
  11. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  14. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  15. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  16. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  17. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  18. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  19. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  20. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  21. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  24. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. file — a document
  4. cold — not warm
  5. last — final
  6. clip — a video
  7. clip — for paper
  8. file — a tool
  9. perch — the fish
  10. last — to go on
  11. race — the arms race
  12. file — a line of people
  13. last — finally
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. prune — to trim
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. prune — to trim
  18. race — a contest
  19. dip — to dunk
  20. prune — the fruit
  21. dip — a sauce
  22. cold — an illness
  23. dip — to sink
  24. race — humankind

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