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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 had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. He is an ace ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  6. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  11. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  12. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  15. You don't need to ________________ round.
  16. We're almost out of ________________.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  19. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  20. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  23. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. file — a tool
  3. pitcher — in baseball
  4. cold — not warm
  5. net — after costs
  6. net — in sport
  7. clip — a video
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. clip — to cut
  10. pop — music
  11. bark — a dog's sound
  12. bark — to shout
  13. file — a document
  14. pitcher — a jug
  15. pop — to visit
  16. pop — soda
  17. file — a line of people
  18. chip — in a computer
  19. chip — to eat
  20. chip — for betting
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. net — for catching
  23. pitcher — a jug
  24. clip — for paper

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