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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. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  2. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  6. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  9. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  10. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  11. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  12. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  13. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  14. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  15. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  18. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  19. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bore — gave birth
  2. hide — to keep secret
  3. prune — to trim
  4. file — a document
  5. track — a path
  6. track — a song
  7. cold — not warm
  8. hide — to keep secret
  9. prune — the fruit
  10. squash — to crush
  11. bore — to drill
  12. prune — to trim
  13. drill — army training
  14. squash — the vegetable
  15. track — to keep track
  16. file — a tool
  17. squash — the sport
  18. drill — a practice
  19. bore — to tire
  20. cold — an illness
  21. drill — the tool
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. hide — animal skin
  24. file — a line of people

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