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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: face · pop · kick · wind · clip · content · land · file

  1. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  3. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  4. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. We're almost out of ________________.
  7. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  12. You don't need to ________________ round.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  24. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. face — to confront
  3. face — to point toward
  4. face — part of the head
  5. file — a tool
  6. pop — soda
  7. pop — music
  8. content — happy
  9. land — a country
  10. file — a line of people
  11. kick — a thrill
  12. pop — to visit
  13. clip — for paper
  14. wind — moving air
  15. wind — moving air
  16. clip — a video
  17. land — ground
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. kick — with a leg
  20. file — a document
  21. clip — to cut
  22. land — to come down
  23. wind — to turn a key
  24. kick — in football

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