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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. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  5. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  6. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  7. How do you ________________ your surname?
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  11. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  12. I'll be taking the ________________.
  13. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. band — a music group
  3. cold — not warm
  4. leaves — of a tree
  5. band — a ring
  6. bore — to tire
  7. spell — letters
  8. cold — an illness
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. bore — to drill
  11. leaves — lets stay
  12. tube — the underground
  13. band — a rubber band
  14. spell — a short time
  15. tube — a container
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. bore — gave birth
  18. bat — the animal
  19. tube — in a tire
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. leaves — to go away
  22. land — to come down
  23. land — ground
  24. spell — magic

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