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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. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  4. She's very handy with a ________________.
  5. I'll be taking the ________________.
  6. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  7. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  8. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  12. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  13. When are we going to ________________?
  14. Don't do anything ________________.
  15. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  18. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  19. He works in a ________________ mill.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  22. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  23. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  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. cold — the Cold War
  2. land — ground
  3. kid — child
  4. saw — the tool
  5. tube — the underground
  6. drill — army training
  7. file — a document
  8. drill — the tool
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. cold — an illness
  11. rash — a series
  12. land — a country
  13. land — to come down
  14. rash — hasty
  15. saw — past of 'see'
  16. file — a tool
  17. rash — on the skin
  18. tube — a container
  19. saw — the tool
  20. cold — not warm
  21. tube — in a tire
  22. kid — to tease
  23. drill — a practice
  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