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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 124 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. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. Positive actions can inspire others to follow ________________.
  6. The cuffs of his ________________ jacket are badly frayed.
  7. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  8. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  9. There's no middle ________________.
  10. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. When will it ________________ you to start?
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  24. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. ground — crushed
  3. content — the amount
  4. land — ground
  5. suit — in cards
  6. suit — clothes
  7. fork — to eat with
  8. ground — the earth
  9. ground — a position
  10. fork — in a road
  11. file — a document
  12. land — to come down
  13. row — to paddle
  14. cold — not warm
  15. suit — to fit
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. file — a tool
  18. file — a line of people
  19. row — a line
  20. cold — an illness
  21. fork — a garden tool
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. row — a quarrel
  24. content — happy

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