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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: clip · pass · kick · current · cold · file · staff · chest

  1. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  6. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  7. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  18. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  19. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  20. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  23. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. pass — to succeed
  2. cold — not warm
  3. kick — with a leg
  4. file — a line of people
  5. pass — a permit
  6. chest — a box
  7. current — happening now
  8. clip — for paper
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. pass — to spend time
  11. chest — of your body
  12. clip — to cut
  13. clip — a video
  14. file — a tool
  15. kick — a thrill
  16. chest — of your body
  17. staff — employees
  18. staff — a stick
  19. staff — employees
  20. current — electric
  21. file — a document
  22. kick — in football
  23. current — of water
  24. cold — an illness

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