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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 information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  9. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  10. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  11. The King held a masked ________________.
  12. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  16. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  19. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. The kitten curled into a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. file — a document
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. land — ground
  5. shower — a meteor shower
  6. shower — to wash
  7. file — a tool
  8. branch — a division
  9. file — a line of people
  10. branch — of a tree
  11. ball — a dance
  12. ball — a great time
  13. bat — the animal
  14. cold — not warm
  15. chair — to sit on
  16. land — a country
  17. cold — an illness
  18. chair — a leader
  19. branch — of a bank
  20. land — to come down
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. chair — a professorship
  23. shower — rain
  24. ball — a round shape

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