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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 120 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 lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  2. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  10. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  11. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  12. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  21. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. Check the label for the sugar ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — a box
  2. leaves — to go away
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. file — a document
  5. present — there
  6. land — to come down
  7. bat — the animal
  8. chest — of your body
  9. land — a country
  10. leaves — lets stay
  11. present — the time now
  12. leaves — of a tree
  13. file — a line of people
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. file — a tool
  16. cold — an illness
  17. land — ground
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. cold — not warm
  20. present — a gift
  21. content — happy
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. chest — of your body
  24. content — the amount

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