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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. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  2. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. Positive actions can inspire others to follow ________________.
  5. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  6. The King held a masked ________________.
  7. When will it ________________ you to start?
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. False peace will not ________________.
  11. The cuffs of his ________________ jacket are badly frayed.
  12. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  13. He works in a ________________ mill.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  16. She's very handy with a ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — finally
  2. file — a line of people
  3. last — final
  4. suit — in cards
  5. ball — a great time
  6. ball — a dance
  7. suit — to fit
  8. clip — to cut
  9. cold — an illness
  10. last — to go on
  11. suit — clothes
  12. ball — a round shape
  13. saw — the tool
  14. degree — from a university
  15. saw — past of 'see'
  16. saw — the tool
  17. degree — temperature
  18. cold — not warm
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. clip — a video
  21. degree — an amount
  22. clip — for paper
  23. file — a document
  24. file — a tool

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