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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. That was a fun ________________.
  2. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  3. This piece is in a major ________________.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  12. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  13. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  14. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  15. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  16. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  21. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  22. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. When are we going to ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. game — a match
  2. pound — for dogs
  3. key — in music
  4. spell — letters
  5. pound — a weight
  6. game — wild animals
  7. game — a kind of play
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. dip — to sink
  10. file — a tool
  11. land — a country
  12. file — a document
  13. dip — a sauce
  14. key — the most important part
  15. spell — magic
  16. key — for a lock
  17. cold — an illness
  18. file — a line of people
  19. cold — not warm
  20. spell — a short time
  21. dip — to dunk
  22. pound — to hit hard
  23. land — ground
  24. land — to come down

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