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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 116 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. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  6. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  7. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. The King held a masked ________________.
  11. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  12. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  17. The ________________ market has crashed.
  18. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  19. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.

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

Answer key

  1. object — to protest
  2. mine — for digging
  3. shower — a meteor shower
  4. wind — moving air
  5. object — a thing
  6. file — a tool
  7. stock — a soup base
  8. kid — child
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. ball — a dance
  11. ball — a great time
  12. object — an aim
  13. shower — rain
  14. shower — to wash
  15. file — a document
  16. mine — an explosive
  17. stock — shares
  18. stock — goods
  19. ball — a round shape
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. file — a line of people
  22. wind — moving air
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. kid — to tease

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