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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 124 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. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  2. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  5. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  6. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  7. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  15. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Don't do anything ________________.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  21. That was ________________ to happen.
  22. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.

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

Answer key

  1. lean — thin
  2. drill — the tool
  3. cold — not warm
  4. lean — to bend
  5. wake — before a funeral
  6. file — a tool
  7. bound — obliged
  8. clip — a video
  9. cold — an illness
  10. rash — on the skin
  11. clip — to cut
  12. wake — to stop sleeping
  13. clip — for paper
  14. lean — to rest against
  15. drill — a practice
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. rash — hasty
  18. file — a document
  19. file — a line of people
  20. bound — tied together
  21. bound — certain
  22. wake — a trail
  23. drill — army training
  24. rash — a series

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