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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. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  8. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  9. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  10. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  11. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  12. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  13. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. False peace will not ________________.
  16. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  17. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  23. How do you ________________ your surname?
  24. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. fall — to drop
  3. clip — a video
  4. bat — the animal
  5. pit — a fruit stone
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. pit — in a race
  8. spell — a short time
  9. land — a country
  10. fall — to drop
  11. fine — all right
  12. fine — high quality
  13. last — finally
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. last — to go on
  16. land — ground
  17. fall — the season
  18. clip — to cut
  19. clip — for paper
  20. pit — a hole
  21. land — to come down
  22. fine — a penalty
  23. spell — letters
  24. spell — magic

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