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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 muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  2. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  3. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  4. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  5. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  8. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  9. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  18. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  22. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  23. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  24. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.

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

Answer key

  1. track — a path
  2. track — a song
  3. rule — government
  4. mine — an explosive
  5. snap — to snap out of it
  6. cold — not warm
  7. rule — a law
  8. spring — of water
  9. rule — to rule out
  10. spring — the season
  11. land — ground
  12. land — to come down
  13. cap — a hat
  14. land — a country
  15. snap — to speak sharply
  16. spring — a coil
  17. cap — a lid
  18. mine — belonging to me
  19. cold — an illness
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. cap — of ice
  22. mine — for digging
  23. track — to keep track
  24. snap — to click

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