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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: drill · fork · file · cold · squash · bear · clip · field

  1. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  4. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  17. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  18. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  19. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  20. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  21. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  22. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. file — a document
  2. clip — for paper
  3. squash — the sport
  4. drill — army training
  5. cold — an illness
  6. fork — a garden tool
  7. cold — not warm
  8. field — farmland
  9. clip — a video
  10. clip — to cut
  11. field — a subject
  12. drill — the tool
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. drill — a practice
  15. file — a tool
  16. bear — to put up with
  17. squash — the vegetable
  18. bear — the animal
  19. fork — to eat with
  20. bear — the animal
  21. fork — in a road
  22. squash — to crush
  23. file — a line of people
  24. field — for sport

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