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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 116 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 asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  2. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  3. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  7. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  8. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  9. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. Tom was very happy that his son returned home ________________ and sound.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  16. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  17. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  18. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. Is it ________________ for us to be here?
  21. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  22. He has no idea where the ________________ is.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — magic
  2. chip — to eat
  3. file — a document
  4. spell — letters
  5. cold — not warm
  6. wind — moving air
  7. wind — moving air
  8. file — a tool
  9. straw — dry grass
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. cold — an illness
  12. land — to come down
  13. safe — out of danger
  14. file — a line of people
  15. spell — a short time
  16. wind — to turn a key
  17. straw — to clutch at straws
  18. land — ground
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. safe — out of danger
  21. chip — in a computer
  22. safe — a strongbox
  23. land — a country
  24. chip — for betting

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