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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's sitting on a gold ________________.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  4. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  5. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  10. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  16. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  19. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  22. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — for digging
  2. tear — from crying
  3. tear — from crying
  4. scale — in music
  5. track — a path
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. cold — not warm
  8. cold — an illness
  9. scale — for weighing
  10. scale — size or range
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. tear — to rip
  13. track — a song
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. march — the month
  16. root — of a plant
  17. file — a line of people
  18. track — to keep track
  19. root — of a word
  20. file — a tool
  21. root — the cause
  22. march — music
  23. march — the month
  24. file — a document

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