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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. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  8. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  9. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  12. That was a fun ________________.
  13. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  21. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  22. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  23. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  2. spell — letters
  3. cold — not warm
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. face — to confront
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. rest — what's left
  8. file — a tool
  9. mine — an explosive
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. spell — magic
  12. game — a match
  13. game — wild animals
  14. spell — a short time
  15. kid — child
  16. cold — an illness
  17. face — to point toward
  18. file — a document
  19. file — a line of people
  20. kid — to tease
  21. rest — what's left
  22. face — part of the head
  23. rest — a break
  24. mine — for digging

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