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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. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  3. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  4. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  10. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  11. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  12. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  13. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  14. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  15. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  16. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  22. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  23. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. deal — an agreement
  3. drill — a practice
  4. rock — music
  5. land — to come down
  6. drill — army training
  7. land — a country
  8. degree — an amount
  9. march — music
  10. deal — a big deal
  11. rock — a stone
  12. march — the month
  13. rock — to move gently
  14. content — happy
  15. content — videos and posts
  16. file — a line of people
  17. file — a tool
  18. content — the amount
  19. degree — from a university
  20. degree — temperature
  21. deal — to handle
  22. march — the month
  23. drill — the tool
  24. file — a document

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