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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  3. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  4. He is an ace ________________.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  10. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  11. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  12. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  13. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. He was locked up in a ________________.
  21. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  22. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  23. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. fall — the season
  3. cell — in biology
  4. pitcher — in baseball
  5. cell — a phone
  6. cold — not warm
  7. root — of a plant
  8. file — a document
  9. drill — a practice
  10. drill — army training
  11. root — the cause
  12. pitcher — a jug
  13. fall — to drop
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. clip — a video
  16. pitcher — a jug
  17. clip — to cut
  18. file — a line of people
  19. file — a tool
  20. cell — in a prison
  21. drill — the tool
  22. fall — to drop
  23. root — of a word
  24. clip — for paper

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