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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. He was locked up in a ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  4. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  7. We're almost out of ________________.
  8. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  9. You don't need to ________________ round.
  10. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  13. When are we going to ________________?
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  21. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  22. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  23. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. cell — in a prison
  2. cold — an illness
  3. pop — music
  4. toast — the most admired
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. mouse — for a computer
  7. pop — soda
  8. cell — a phone
  9. pop — to visit
  10. land — ground
  11. file — a document
  12. toast — bread
  13. land — to come down
  14. cell — in biology
  15. cold — not warm
  16. file — a tool
  17. file — a line of people
  18. bat — the animal
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. land — a country
  21. mouse — the animal
  22. mouse — the animal
  23. toast — a drink to someone
  24. cold — the Cold War

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