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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 120 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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  9. That was ________________ to happen.
  10. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  11. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  14. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  24. When are we going to ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. wind — moving air
  3. cold — not warm
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. land — ground
  6. file — a document
  7. file — a line of people
  8. bound — obliged
  9. bound — certain
  10. board — a committee
  11. board — to get on
  12. tear — from crying
  13. board — a flat piece
  14. tear — to rip
  15. file — a tool
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. capital — money
  18. tear — from crying
  19. capital — a city
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. wind — moving air
  22. land — a country
  23. bound — tied together
  24. land — to come down

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