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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. When are we going to ________________?
  10. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  13. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  14. Where did you ________________ them?
  15. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  18. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  22. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  23. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. mug — a cup
  3. cold — not warm
  4. clip — for paper
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. land — a country
  7. kid — to tease
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. land — to come down
  10. chip — to eat
  11. kid — child
  12. scale — for weighing
  13. mug — a face
  14. mug — to rob
  15. chip — in a computer
  16. clip — to cut
  17. land — ground
  18. scale — in music
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. scale — size or range
  22. chip — for betting
  23. mine — for digging
  24. clip — a video

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