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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. False peace will not ________________.
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  9. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  10. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  11. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  12. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  13. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  14. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  15. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  16. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  17. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  18. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  19. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — to go on
  2. file — a tool
  3. file — a document
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. cold — not warm
  8. fan — a supporter
  9. fan — to cool the air
  10. capital — a city
  11. trunk — of an elephant
  12. bass — low music
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. bass — the fish
  15. bass — the instrument
  16. last — final
  17. trunk — of a tree
  18. trunk — of a car
  19. mine — an explosive
  20. capital — money
  21. mine — for digging
  22. cold — an illness
  23. last — finally
  24. file — a line of people

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