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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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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: clip · bat · bulb · file · land · season · foot · mine

  1. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  9. The light ________________ burned out.
  10. I've got to change the light ________________.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. Did you ________________ the meat?
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  22. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  23. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  24. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. land — ground
  3. mine — belonging to me
  4. mine — for digging
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. file — a document
  7. clip — a video
  8. file — a tool
  9. bulb — for light
  10. bulb — for light
  11. land — to come down
  12. bat — the animal
  13. file — a line of people
  14. season — to add flavour
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. foot — a measure
  17. land — a country
  18. season — of the year
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. clip — to cut
  21. bulb — of a plant
  22. season — in sport
  23. foot — part of the body
  24. foot — the bottom

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