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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  3. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  4. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  5. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  8. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  9. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The ball is in your ________________.
  15. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  20. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  21. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. rock — to move gently
  3. chip — in a computer
  4. court — of a king
  5. rock — music
  6. cold — an illness
  7. court — of law
  8. rock — a stone
  9. chip — to eat
  10. file — a document
  11. file — a line of people
  12. file — a tool
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. court — for sport
  15. drill — a practice
  16. hand — help
  17. drill — army training
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. drill — the tool
  20. hand — in cards
  21. chip — for betting
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. mine — for digging

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