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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: land · face · leaves · swing · file · race · clip · spring

  1. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  4. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  5. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  11. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  16. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  17. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  18. David sat on the ________________.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  23. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. file — a tool
  2. clip — to cut
  3. swing — music
  4. leaves — of a tree
  5. face — part of the head
  6. land — a country
  7. land — to come down
  8. file — a document
  9. land — ground
  10. leaves — lets stay
  11. leaves — to go away
  12. spring — a coil
  13. spring — of water
  14. spring — the season
  15. face — to point toward
  16. swing — in golf
  17. race — humankind
  18. swing — to play on
  19. clip — for paper
  20. face — to confront
  21. file — a line of people
  22. race — a contest
  23. race — the arms race
  24. clip — a video

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