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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. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  3. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  8. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  9. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  15. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  16. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. Don't do anything ________________.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  22. It's one o'clock ________________.
  23. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. rash — on the skin
  3. file — a line of people
  4. file — a document
  5. sharp — with an edge
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. sharp — clever
  8. wake — a trail
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. clip — for paper
  11. wake — before a funeral
  12. spring — of water
  13. spring — the season
  14. perch — the fish
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. wake — to stop sleeping
  17. clip — to cut
  18. clip — a video
  19. rash — hasty
  20. capital — money
  21. capital — a city
  22. sharp — exactly
  23. rash — a series
  24. file — a tool

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