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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: saw · land · ball · file · mouse · stem · clip · cold

  1. He works in a ________________ mill.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  9. The King held a masked ________________.
  10. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  11. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  14. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  15. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. She's very handy with a ________________.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. saw — the tool
  2. cold — an illness
  3. mouse — for a computer
  4. clip — to cut
  5. ball — a great time
  6. clip — a video
  7. land — a country
  8. ball — a round shape
  9. ball — a dance
  10. land — ground
  11. mouse — the animal
  12. land — to come down
  13. stem — a stem cell
  14. stem — to come from
  15. stem — of a plant
  16. clip — for paper
  17. saw — past of 'see'
  18. file — a line of people
  19. saw — the tool
  20. file — a tool
  21. cold — not warm
  22. mouse — the animal
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. file — a document

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