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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 met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  2. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  3. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  4. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  11. He was locked up in a ________________.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  14. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  19. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  20. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  21. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — belonging to me
  2. board — a committee
  3. kick — with a leg
  4. board — to get on
  5. cold — not warm
  6. file — a document
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. content — happy
  9. cold — an illness
  10. mine — for digging
  11. cell — in a prison
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. cell — in biology
  14. cell — a phone
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. shower — to wash
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. kick — a thrill
  19. content — the amount
  20. board — a flat piece
  21. kick — in football
  22. file — a line of people
  23. file — a tool
  24. shower — rain

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