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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 116 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. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  2. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  3. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  4. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. How do you ________________ your surname?
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  23. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  24. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.

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

Answer key

  1. cap — a hat
  2. cap — a lid
  3. file — a document
  4. mine — an explosive
  5. file — a line of people
  6. spell — letters
  7. mine — for digging
  8. lie — an untruth
  9. shower — to wash
  10. cap — of ice
  11. file — a tool
  12. lie — an untruth
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. band — a music group
  16. kid — to tease
  17. spell — magic
  18. kid — child
  19. spell — a short time
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. shower — rain
  22. band — a ring
  23. lie — to recline
  24. band — a rubber band

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