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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. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  6. The ball is in your ________________.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  9. When are we going to ________________?
  10. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  11. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  12. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  13. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  14. Where did you ________________ them?
  15. False peace will not ________________.
  16. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  17. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  20. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  21. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  22. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mug — a face
  2. clip — to cut
  3. snap — to click
  4. file — a document
  5. craft — a skill
  6. court — for sport
  7. clip — a video
  8. land — ground
  9. land — to come down
  10. craft — boats
  11. court — of a king
  12. snap — to snap out of it
  13. last — finally
  14. mug — to rob
  15. last — to go on
  16. craft — a handicraft
  17. last — final
  18. clip — for paper
  19. snap — to speak sharply
  20. mug — a cup
  21. file — a tool
  22. court — of law
  23. land — a country
  24. file — a line of people

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