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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: bound · clip · degree · hand · wake · straw · file · saw

  1. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. He works in a ________________ mill.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. She's very handy with a ________________.
  12. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  16. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  17. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. That was ________________ to happen.
  22. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bound — tied together
  2. clip — to cut
  3. hand — help
  4. straw — a straw man
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. file — a tool
  8. file — a document
  9. saw — the tool
  10. file — a line of people
  11. saw — the tool
  12. wake — before a funeral
  13. degree — from a university
  14. clip — a video
  15. saw — past of 'see'
  16. degree — an amount
  17. wake — a trail
  18. clip — for paper
  19. bound — obliged
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. bound — certain
  22. wake — to stop sleeping
  23. degree — temperature
  24. hand — in cards

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