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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: cold · wind · pound · clip · cell · wake

  1. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  2. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  8. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  9. He was locked up in a ________________.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  12. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  17. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  18. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.

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

Answer key

  1. pound — a weight
  2. wind — moving air
  3. clip — for paper
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. cell — a phone
  7. wake — a trail
  8. wake — to stop sleeping
  9. cell — in a prison
  10. clip — to cut
  11. wake — before a funeral
  12. wind — moving air
  13. cold — an illness
  14. cold — not warm
  15. clip — a video
  16. pound — for dogs
  17. cell — in biology
  18. pound — to hit hard

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