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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 120 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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Word bank
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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: land · clip · file · wind · wound · field · rush · track

  1. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  2. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  3. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  12. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  19. That must've been a ________________.
  20. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  21. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  22. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. This looks like a gunshot ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. track — to keep track
  2. rush — to hurry
  3. file — a line of people
  4. field — a subject
  5. field — farmland
  6. wound — an injury
  7. clip — for paper
  8. file — a tool
  9. land — ground
  10. land — to come down
  11. track — a song
  12. rush — hurry
  13. field — for sport
  14. clip — a video
  15. wind — moving air
  16. clip — to cut
  17. land — a country
  18. wound — past of 'wind'
  19. rush — a thrill
  20. wind — moving air
  21. wind — to turn a key
  22. track — a path
  23. file — a document
  24. wound — an injury

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