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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: chip · mug · bulb · spring · cold · fork · clip · row

  1. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  2. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. The light ________________ burned out.
  7. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  8. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  9. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  10. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  15. I've got to change the light ________________.
  16. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  19. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  20. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  21. Where did you ________________ them?
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  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. mug — a cup
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. clip — to cut
  4. mug — a face
  5. cold — not warm
  6. bulb — for light
  7. row — a line
  8. row — to paddle
  9. chip — for betting
  10. fork — a garden tool
  11. cold — an illness
  12. spring — of water
  13. spring — a coil
  14. bulb — of a plant
  15. bulb — for light
  16. chip — to eat
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. fork — to eat with
  19. fork — in a road
  20. spring — the season
  21. mug — to rob
  22. clip — a video
  23. chip — in a computer
  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