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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. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  2. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  3. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  4. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  13. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  14. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. How do you ________________ your surname?
  20. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  21. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  22. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.

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

Answer key

  1. file — a line of people
  2. drill — a practice
  3. spell — a short time
  4. drill — the tool
  5. clip — a video
  6. march — the month
  7. land — ground
  8. land — a country
  9. file — a tool
  10. wound — past of 'wind'
  11. march — the month
  12. race — a contest
  13. spell — magic
  14. race — the arms race
  15. land — to come down
  16. clip — for paper
  17. wound — an injury
  18. clip — to cut
  19. spell — letters
  20. wound — an injury
  21. march — music
  22. race — humankind
  23. file — a document
  24. drill — army training

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