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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. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. She's very handy with a ________________.
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  12. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  13. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  14. He works in a ________________ mill.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  17. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  18. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  19. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  20. My mare is ________________ in color.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. The tickets are free of ________________.
  24. It's one o'clock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. file — a tool
  3. saw — the tool
  4. file — a line of people
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. bowl — a football final
  7. cold — an illness
  8. bowl — to roll
  9. clip — a video
  10. clip — to cut
  11. charge — electricity
  12. bay — a part of the sea
  13. saw — past of 'see'
  14. saw — the tool
  15. cold — not warm
  16. sharp — clever
  17. sharp — with an edge
  18. bay — to keep at bay
  19. charge — in control
  20. bay — a horse colour
  21. clip — for paper
  22. file — a document
  23. charge — a price
  24. sharp — exactly

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