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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 116 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. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  2. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  6. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  9. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  10. You don't need to ________________ round.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  19. We're almost out of ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  22. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  23. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. file — a tool
  2. march — music
  3. degree — from a university
  4. cold — not warm
  5. pound — a weight
  6. kick — a thrill
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. pound — for dogs
  9. pound — to hit hard
  10. pop — to visit
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. march — the month
  13. degree — an amount
  14. mine — for digging
  15. file — a line of people
  16. kick — in football
  17. degree — temperature
  18. pop — music
  19. pop — soda
  20. cold — an illness
  21. march — the month
  22. kick — with a leg
  23. mine — an explosive
  24. file — a document

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