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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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468
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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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. There's no middle ________________.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. When was this ________________ built?
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  23. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  24. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. ground — crushed
  3. ground — a position
  4. game — a match
  5. clip — for paper
  6. clip — a video
  7. staff — employees
  8. file — a line of people
  9. file — a tool
  10. chest — of your body
  11. chest — a box
  12. game — a kind of play
  13. chest — of your body
  14. temple — a place of worship
  15. cold — an illness
  16. temple — a place of worship
  17. game — wild animals
  18. file — a document
  19. staff — a stick
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. cold — not warm
  22. ground — the earth
  23. staff — employees
  24. temple — side of the head

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