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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. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  3. He was locked up in a ________________.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  14. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  15. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  16. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  20. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  21. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  22. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. rule — a law
  2. kick — a thrill
  3. cell — in a prison
  4. spring — the season
  5. trunk — of a car
  6. march — music
  7. trunk — of an elephant
  8. cold — an illness
  9. march — the month
  10. spring — of water
  11. cold — not warm
  12. land — to come down
  13. rule — government
  14. kick — in football
  15. kick — with a leg
  16. cell — a phone
  17. land — a country
  18. spring — a coil
  19. march — the month
  20. rule — to rule out
  21. cell — in biology
  22. trunk — of a tree
  23. land — ground
  24. cold — the Cold War

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