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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: nail · land · saw · cold · march · clip · rest · game

  1. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  8. She's very handy with a ________________.
  9. He works in a ________________ mill.
  10. The ________________ went through the wall.
  11. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. That was a fun ________________.
  14. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  15. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  22. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  23. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. march — music
  4. clip — a video
  5. land — a country
  6. cold — not warm
  7. nail — for a hammer
  8. saw — the tool
  9. saw — the tool
  10. nail — for a hammer
  11. march — the month
  12. cold — an illness
  13. game — a match
  14. march — the month
  15. rest — what's left
  16. clip — for paper
  17. land — to come down
  18. nail — on a finger
  19. game — wild animals
  20. land — ground
  21. rest — a break
  22. saw — past of 'see'
  23. rest — what's left
  24. cold — the Cold War

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