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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 124 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. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. We're on a ________________ here.
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  7. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  19. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. Did you ________________ the meat?
  22. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. racket — for tennis
  2. clip — to cut
  3. roll — on a roll
  4. file — a tool
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. shower — a meteor shower
  7. roll — a list
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. field — farmland
  10. season — of the year
  11. file — a line of people
  12. roll — a cake
  13. field — for sport
  14. clip — for paper
  15. shower — to wash
  16. field — a subject
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. racket — for tennis
  19. racket — a loud noise
  20. file — a document
  21. season — to add flavour
  22. season — in sport
  23. shower — rain
  24. clip — a video

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