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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 116 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. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  5. How do you ________________ your surname?
  6. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  11. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  12. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  13. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  17. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  18. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  22. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  23. There's no middle ________________.
  24. That was ________________ to happen.

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

Answer key

  1. hide — to keep secret
  2. cold — not warm
  3. file — a tool
  4. hide — to keep secret
  5. spell — letters
  6. ground — crushed
  7. land — ground
  8. snap — to speak sharply
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. land — a country
  11. spell — a short time
  12. bound — obliged
  13. hide — animal skin
  14. file — a line of people
  15. cold — an illness
  16. spell — magic
  17. bound — tied together
  18. ground — the earth
  19. land — to come down
  20. file — a document
  21. snap — to click
  22. snap — to snap out of it
  23. ground — a position
  24. bound — certain

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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