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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. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  2. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  3. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  6. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  7. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  12. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  13. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. The ________________ market has crashed.
  16. This piece is in a major ________________.
  17. Did you ________________ the meat?
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. What's the difference between broth and ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. key — the most important part
  2. current — happening now
  3. key — for a lock
  4. file — a line of people
  5. season — of the year
  6. season — in sport
  7. file — a document
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. current — of water
  10. file — a tool
  11. current — electric
  12. stock — goods
  13. mine — for digging
  14. clip — a video
  15. stock — shares
  16. key — in music
  17. season — to add flavour
  18. cold — not warm
  19. clip — to cut
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. cold — an illness
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. clip — for paper
  24. stock — a soup base

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