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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. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  2. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  3. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  10. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  11. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  14. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  15. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  19. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. pound — a weight
  2. deal — an agreement
  3. mine — belonging to me
  4. file — a tool
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. clip — a video
  7. mine — for digging
  8. file — a line of people
  9. march — music
  10. pound — to hit hard
  11. march — the month
  12. clip — to cut
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. fan — to cool the air
  15. fan — a supporter
  16. march — the month
  17. cold — not warm
  18. pound — for dogs
  19. deal — a big deal
  20. clip — for paper
  21. deal — to handle
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. cold — an illness
  24. file — a document

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