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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: bat · clip · cold · wave · chip · face · march · rule

  1. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  2. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  4. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  5. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  10. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  21. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  22. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — a video
  2. march — the month
  3. rule — a law
  4. face — to confront
  5. chip — in a computer
  6. clip — for paper
  7. rule — to rule out
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. wave — of the sea
  10. wave — with your hand
  11. cold — an illness
  12. march — the month
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. face — to point toward
  15. clip — to cut
  16. chip — to eat
  17. bat — the animal
  18. chip — for betting
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. rule — government
  21. wave — a sudden rise
  22. face — part of the head
  23. cold — not warm
  24. march — music

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