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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. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  4. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  8. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  9. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  10. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  13. Have you met the new head ________________?
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  19. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  20. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  21. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  22. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  23. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. file — a tool
  2. clip — for paper
  3. club — for dancing
  4. pitch — a sales talk
  5. cold — an illness
  6. clip — a video
  7. pitch — a sports field
  8. fan — a supporter
  9. coach — pulled by horses
  10. pitch — completely
  11. cold — not warm
  12. club — for golf
  13. coach — a trainer
  14. clip — to cut
  15. file — a document
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. coach — a trainer
  19. cell — a phone
  20. club — a group
  21. cell — in biology
  22. fan — to cool the air
  23. fan — a supporter
  24. file — a line of people

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