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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 had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  7. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  8. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  9. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  10. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  11. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  14. He was locked up in a ________________.
  15. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  16. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  19. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  23. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. cold — an illness
  3. pitch — completely
  4. land — ground
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. snap — to snap out of it
  7. cell — in biology
  8. pitch — a sports field
  9. fan — to cool the air
  10. fan — a supporter
  11. fan — a supporter
  12. land — to come down
  13. snap — to click
  14. cell — in a prison
  15. cell — a phone
  16. branch — a division
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. snap — to speak sharply
  19. branch — of a bank
  20. bat — the animal
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. branch — of a tree
  23. pitch — a sales talk
  24. cold — not warm

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