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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 120 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. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  2. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  7. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  8. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  9. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  10. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. That was ________________ to happen.
  15. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  16. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  17. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — for digging
  2. bound — obliged
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. row — a line
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. wind — moving air
  7. bound — tied together
  8. chest — a box
  9. land — a country
  10. chest — of your body
  11. land — to come down
  12. wind — moving air
  13. cold — an illness
  14. bound — certain
  15. present — there
  16. present — the time now
  17. present — a gift
  18. row — to paddle
  19. mine — belonging to me
  20. chest — of your body
  21. wind — to turn a key
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. cold — not warm
  24. land — ground

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