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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: game · wound · chest · clip · wind · file · wave · fork

  1. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  4. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  7. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  13. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  17. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  21. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  22. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  23. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — to turn a key
  2. chest — of your body
  3. wave — with your hand
  4. fork — to eat with
  5. file — a tool
  6. file — a document
  7. game — wild animals
  8. clip — to cut
  9. wind — moving air
  10. wave — of the sea
  11. chest — a box
  12. wind — moving air
  13. chest — of your body
  14. wound — an injury
  15. game — a match
  16. wave — a sudden rise
  17. wound — an injury
  18. clip — a video
  19. file — a line of people
  20. fork — a garden tool
  21. game — a kind of play
  22. wound — past of 'wind'
  23. fork — in a road
  24. clip — for paper

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