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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. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  7. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  8. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  11. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. He is an ace ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  16. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  17. I'll be taking the ________________.
  18. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  19. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  20. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  21. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  22. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — to stop sleeping
  2. clip — for paper
  3. file — a line of people
  4. clip — to cut
  5. clip — a video
  6. bark — to shout
  7. snap — to speak sharply
  8. tube — a container
  9. file — a document
  10. wake — a trail
  11. bark — a dog's sound
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. pitcher — in baseball
  14. cold — not warm
  15. pitcher — a jug
  16. snap — to snap out of it
  17. tube — the underground
  18. wake — before a funeral
  19. snap — to click
  20. tube — in a tire
  21. pitcher — a jug
  22. bark — of a tree
  23. file — a tool
  24. cold — an illness

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