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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. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  2. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  8. He was locked up in a ________________.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  11. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  12. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  13. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  14. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  15. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  16. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. False peace will not ________________.
  19. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  20. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  21. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  22. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — to crush
  2. cell — in biology
  3. land — ground
  4. last — final
  5. mine — for digging
  6. cell — a phone
  7. mine — an explosive
  8. cell — in a prison
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. squash — the vegetable
  11. last — finally
  12. land — a country
  13. can — a tin
  14. race — a contest
  15. race — humankind
  16. can — to be able to
  17. land — to come down
  18. last — to go on
  19. race — the arms race
  20. squash — the sport
  21. mine — belonging to me
  22. can — a tin
  23. kid — child
  24. kid — to tease

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