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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. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  2. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  3. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  7. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  8. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  9. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  10. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  11. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  12. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  15. False peace will not ________________.
  16. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  21. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  24. He was locked up in a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chip — to eat
  2. wound — an injury
  3. wound — an injury
  4. file — a document
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. file — a line of people
  7. last — final
  8. march — the month
  9. wound — past of 'wind'
  10. march — the month
  11. march — music
  12. cell — a phone
  13. cold — an illness
  14. net — after costs
  15. last — to go on
  16. net — in sport
  17. last — finally
  18. net — for catching
  19. file — a tool
  20. chip — in a computer
  21. cell — in biology
  22. cold — not warm
  23. chip — for betting
  24. cell — in a prison

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