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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. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  4. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  7. She's very handy with a ________________.
  8. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  9. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  10. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  13. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  17. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  18. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  19. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  23. He works in a ________________ mill.
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. degree — an amount
  3. drill — army training
  4. pit — a hole
  5. march — the month
  6. saw — past of 'see'
  7. saw — the tool
  8. pit — a fruit stone
  9. rule — to rule out
  10. hand — in cards
  11. degree — temperature
  12. rule — government
  13. rule — a law
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. march — the month
  16. march — music
  17. pit — in a race
  18. land — ground
  19. drill — a practice
  20. hand — help
  21. land — to come down
  22. drill — the tool
  23. saw — the tool
  24. degree — from a university

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