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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. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  2. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  3. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  4. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. When was this ________________ built?
  9. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  17. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  18. Did you ________________ the meat?
  19. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. season — in sport
  2. temple — a place of worship
  3. temple — side of the head
  4. pitch — a sports field
  5. file — a tool
  6. land — a country
  7. file — a line of people
  8. temple — a place of worship
  9. bark — to shout
  10. cold — not warm
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. shower — to wash
  13. bark — a dog's sound
  14. land — ground
  15. file — a document
  16. pitch — completely
  17. pitch — a sales talk
  18. season — to add flavour
  19. bark — of a tree
  20. land — to come down
  21. shower — rain
  22. cold — an illness
  23. season — of the year
  24. cold — the Cold War

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