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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. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  2. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  3. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  4. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  7. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  8. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  16. We're on a ________________ here.
  17. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  20. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  21. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. When are we going to ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. pound — to hit hard
  2. roll — a cake
  3. drill — a practice
  4. stem — of a plant
  5. file — a line of people
  6. drill — army training
  7. stem — a stem cell
  8. stem — to come from
  9. land — ground
  10. drill — the tool
  11. file — a tool
  12. rule — a law
  13. land — a country
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. pound — for dogs
  16. roll — on a roll
  17. roll — a list
  18. cold — an illness
  19. pound — a weight
  20. rule — to rule out
  21. rule — government
  22. file — a document
  23. cold — not warm
  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