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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. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  2. False peace will not ________________.
  3. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  6. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  7. He is an ace ________________.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  10. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  16. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  20. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  21. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  22. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — belonging to me
  2. last — to go on
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. file — a tool
  5. rest — what's left
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. pitcher — in baseball
  8. file — a document
  9. mine — an explosive
  10. last — final
  11. court — for sport
  12. mine — for digging
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. degree — an amount
  15. rest — a break
  16. file — a line of people
  17. degree — from a university
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. court — of law
  20. rest — what's left
  21. last — finally
  22. straw — to clutch at straws
  23. degree — temperature
  24. court — of a king

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