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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. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  9. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  15. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  20. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Don't do anything ________________.
  24. He is as ________________ as a wolf.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. mine — belonging to me
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. file — a document
  5. mine — for digging
  6. cold — not warm
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. file — a tool
  9. rash — a series
  10. file — a line of people
  11. spring — the season
  12. lean — to bend
  13. hand — in cards
  14. march — music
  15. rash — on the skin
  16. hand — help
  17. spring — of water
  18. spring — a coil
  19. march — the month
  20. lean — to rest against
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. cold — an illness
  23. rash — hasty
  24. lean — thin

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