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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. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  2. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  10. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  11. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  12. Have you met the new head ________________?
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  19. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  20. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  21. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  22. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  23. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. mark — to pay attention
  2. wave — of the sea
  3. file — a tool
  4. bear — to put up with
  5. file — a line of people
  6. cold — an illness
  7. wave — with your hand
  8. clip — a video
  9. coach — pulled by horses
  10. bear — the animal
  11. wave — a sudden rise
  12. coach — a trainer
  13. clip — to cut
  14. clip — for paper
  15. fall — to drop
  16. file — a document
  17. cold — not warm
  18. mark — a trace
  19. mark — a grade
  20. coach — a trainer
  21. fall — the season
  22. bear — the animal
  23. fall — to drop
  24. cold — the Cold War

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