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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. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  4. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  7. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  8. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  9. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  10. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  11. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  12. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  13. When was this ________________ built?
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. That was a fun ________________.
  17. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  18. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  19. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  20. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — for digging
  2. spring — a coil
  3. rule — government
  4. mine — an explosive
  5. chest — of your body
  6. temple — a place of worship
  7. drill — the tool
  8. drill — a practice
  9. chest — a box
  10. rule — to rule out
  11. mine — belonging to me
  12. drill — army training
  13. temple — a place of worship
  14. kid — to tease
  15. spring — of water
  16. game — a match
  17. game — a kind of play
  18. rule — a law
  19. spring — the season
  20. temple — side of the head
  21. kid — child
  22. game — wild animals
  23. chest — of your body
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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