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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. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  2. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. That was ________________ to happen.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  16. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  17. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  18. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.

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

Answer key

  1. file — a tool
  2. can — to be able to
  3. cold — an illness
  4. cold — not warm
  5. bound — certain
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. kid — to tease
  8. field — for sport
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. wind — moving air
  11. bound — obliged
  12. field — farmland
  13. kid — child
  14. file — a line of people
  15. bound — tied together
  16. bore — gave birth
  17. bore — to tire
  18. can — a tin
  19. field — a subject
  20. can — a tin
  21. wind — moving air
  22. bore — to drill
  23. file — a document
  24. wind — to turn a key

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