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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. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  2. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  3. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  4. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  5. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  8. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  9. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. The ball is in your ________________.
  13. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  14. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  17. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  18. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  19. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  20. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  24. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. scale — size or range
  3. scale — for weighing
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. file — a document
  6. cold — not warm
  7. root — of a word
  8. court — of law
  9. fan — a supporter
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. march — the month
  12. court — for sport
  13. root — the cause
  14. fan — to cool the air
  15. file — a tool
  16. march — music
  17. march — the month
  18. scale — in music
  19. court — of a king
  20. root — of a plant
  21. cold — an illness
  22. file — a line of people
  23. wind — to turn a key
  24. wind — moving air

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