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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: file · cold · clip · fall · straw · rule · wound · current

  1. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  13. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  14. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  15. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  19. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  22. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. current — of water
  2. clip — a video
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. clip — for paper
  5. file — a line of people
  6. cold — not warm
  7. rule — government
  8. clip — to cut
  9. wound — an injury
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. file — a document
  12. rule — a law
  13. fall — to drop
  14. fall — the season
  15. wound — an injury
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. current — happening now
  19. rule — to rule out
  20. file — a tool
  21. fall — to drop
  22. straw — dry grass
  23. cold — an illness
  24. current — electric

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