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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  3. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  4. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  5. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  6. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  7. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  8. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  9. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  10. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  15. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  16. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  21. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. pound — a weight
  3. bore — gave birth
  4. rule — a law
  5. fork — to eat with
  6. pound — for dogs
  7. bore — to drill
  8. fork — in a road
  9. bore — to tire
  10. face — to confront
  11. file — a line of people
  12. rule — government
  13. clip — to cut
  14. face — part of the head
  15. rule — to rule out
  16. face — to point toward
  17. file — a tool
  18. clip — a video
  19. spring — of water
  20. fork — a garden tool
  21. pound — to hit hard
  22. file — a document
  23. spring — the season
  24. spring — a coil

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