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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: straw · wake · present · cold · net · file · rest · clip

  1. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  6. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  9. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  10. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  18. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  19. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — to stop sleeping
  2. clip — for paper
  3. cold — an illness
  4. file — a document
  5. rest — what's left
  6. net — for catching
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. straw — to clutch at straws
  9. wake — a trail
  10. present — the time now
  11. clip — a video
  12. rest — what's left
  13. file — a line of people
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. present — there
  16. file — a tool
  17. wake — before a funeral
  18. rest — a break
  19. present — a gift
  20. clip — to cut
  21. net — in sport
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. net — after costs
  24. cold — not warm

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