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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 potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  2. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  7. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  8. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  9. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  16. You don't need to ________________ round.
  17. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  18. We're almost out of ________________.
  19. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  24. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.

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

Answer key

  1. chip — to eat
  2. object — to protest
  3. cold — an illness
  4. file — a document
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. patient — a sick person
  7. pitch — a sales talk
  8. object — a thing
  9. patient — a sick person
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. chip — in a computer
  12. cold — not warm
  13. pitch — completely
  14. file — a tool
  15. object — an aim
  16. pop — to visit
  17. pitch — a sports field
  18. pop — soda
  19. patient — calm and waiting
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. mine — for digging
  22. file — a line of people
  23. chip — for betting
  24. pop — music

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