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

  1. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. There's no middle ________________.
  6. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  7. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  12. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  13. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  14. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  15. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. When are we going to ________________?
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  21. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. land — ground
  3. band — a music group
  4. cold — an illness
  5. ground — a position
  6. wake — to stop sleeping
  7. hide — to keep secret
  8. degree — an amount
  9. hide — animal skin
  10. degree — from a university
  11. band — a rubber band
  12. wake — a trail
  13. hide — to keep secret
  14. ground — the earth
  15. bat — the animal
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. land — to come down
  19. cold — not warm
  20. band — a ring
  21. wake — before a funeral
  22. degree — temperature
  23. ground — crushed
  24. bat — for baseball

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