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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. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  3. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  4. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  8. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  9. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  12. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  13. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  16. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  17. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.

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

Answer key

  1. hide — to keep secret
  2. trunk — of a car
  3. club — for golf
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. degree — from a university
  6. land — a country
  7. fan — to cool the air
  8. club — a group
  9. content — the amount
  10. file — a tool
  11. club — for dancing
  12. content — happy
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. degree — an amount
  15. content — videos and posts
  16. hide — to keep secret
  17. trunk — of a tree
  18. file — a document
  19. degree — temperature
  20. trunk — of an elephant
  21. land — to come down
  22. land — ground
  23. file — a line of people
  24. hide — animal skin

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