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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. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  8. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  14. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  15. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  16. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  17. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  18. There's no middle ________________.
  19. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — to come from
  2. land — ground
  3. land — to come down
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. mine — for digging
  6. land — a country
  7. content — happy
  8. ground — crushed
  9. file — a document
  10. content — the amount
  11. pound — for dogs
  12. file — a line of people
  13. pound — to hit hard
  14. pound — a weight
  15. row — to paddle
  16. mine — an explosive
  17. row — a line
  18. ground — a position
  19. stem — a stem cell
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. stem — of a plant
  22. file — a tool
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. ground — the earth

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