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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. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  4. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  7. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  8. How do you ________________ your surname?
  9. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  10. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  11. He is an ace ________________.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  14. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  15. That was ________________ to happen.
  16. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  19. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.

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

Answer key

  1. calf — a young animal
  2. bat — the animal
  3. chip — in a computer
  4. pitcher — a jug
  5. file — a tool
  6. file — a document
  7. bound — obliged
  8. spell — letters
  9. calf — of the leg
  10. calf — a young animal
  11. pitcher — in baseball
  12. file — a line of people
  13. spell — a short time
  14. spell — magic
  15. bound — certain
  16. chip — to eat
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. chip — for betting
  19. pitcher — a jug
  20. cold — an illness
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. cold — not warm
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. bound — tied together

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