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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. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  15. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. He was locked up in a ________________.
  24. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?

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

Answer key

  1. rule — a law
  2. snap — to click
  3. cell — a phone
  4. cold — an illness
  5. rule — to rule out
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. row — to paddle
  8. row — a line
  9. drill — a practice
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. wind — moving air
  12. row — a quarrel
  13. cold — not warm
  14. drill — army training
  15. cell — in biology
  16. chest — of your body
  17. wind — moving air
  18. chest — a box
  19. snap — to snap out of it
  20. chest — of your body
  21. drill — the tool
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. cell — in a prison
  24. rule — government

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