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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: wind · roll · last · object · content · mine · clip · chair

  1. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  2. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  3. We're on a ________________ here.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  8. False peace will not ________________.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  11. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  17. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  18. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  19. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  20. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. object — to protest
  2. roll — a cake
  3. roll — on a roll
  4. clip — a video
  5. object — an aim
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. chair — a leader
  8. last — to go on
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. object — a thing
  11. mine — for digging
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. wind — moving air
  14. content — happy
  15. clip — for paper
  16. chair — a professorship
  17. roll — a list
  18. last — final
  19. chair — to sit on
  20. wind — moving air
  21. content — the amount
  22. clip — to cut
  23. mine — an explosive
  24. last — finally

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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