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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 · key · rule

  1. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  4. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  5. This piece is in a major ________________.
  6. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  7. He was locked up in a ________________.
  8. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  9. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  10. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  11. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  16. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  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.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  24. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. clip — to cut
  3. rule — government
  4. rule — a law
  5. key — in music
  6. wake — before a funeral
  7. cell — in a prison
  8. wake — to stop sleeping
  9. rule — to rule out
  10. pound — for dogs
  11. wind — moving air
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. clip — for paper
  15. key — the most important part
  16. key — for a lock
  17. cell — in biology
  18. pound — to hit hard
  19. cold — an illness
  20. cold — not warm
  21. cell — a phone
  22. clip — a video
  23. wake — a trail
  24. pound — a weight

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