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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: last · clip · rush · board · cold · face · date · straw

  1. Have you settled on a ________________?
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  7. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  8. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  9. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  14. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  17. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  18. That must've been a ________________.
  19. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. False peace will not ________________.
  23. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. date — on the calendar
  2. clip — a video
  3. last — final
  4. face — to confront
  5. cold — an illness
  6. board — a flat piece
  7. date — the fruit
  8. date — on the calendar
  9. rush — hurry
  10. cold — not warm
  11. board — to get on
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. last — finally
  14. board — a committee
  15. clip — for paper
  16. face — part of the head
  17. face — to point toward
  18. rush — a thrill
  19. rush — to hurry
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. clip — to cut
  22. last — to go on
  23. straw — dry grass
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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