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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'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  5. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  8. I'll be taking the ________________.
  9. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  12. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  13. The ball is in your ________________.
  14. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  19. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  22. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  23. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  24. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. chair — a professorship
  3. land — a country
  4. race — humankind
  5. chair — a leader
  6. cold — not warm
  7. tube — a container
  8. tube — the underground
  9. wound — past of 'wind'
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. face — to confront
  12. race — a contest
  13. court — for sport
  14. face — part of the head
  15. land — to come down
  16. face — to point toward
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. wound — an injury
  19. race — the arms race
  20. cold — an illness
  21. wound — an injury
  22. tube — in a tire
  23. court — of law
  24. court — of a king

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