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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: wound · cap · kid · plane · cell · file · mine · land

  1. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. The ________________ took off on time.
  4. He was locked up in a ________________.
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  9. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  12. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  13. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  14. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  15. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  21. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  22. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  23. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. cell — a phone
  2. land — a country
  3. plane — an aircraft
  4. cell — in a prison
  5. land — to come down
  6. wound — an injury
  7. land — ground
  8. wound — past of 'wind'
  9. cell — in biology
  10. file — a line of people
  11. cap — of ice
  12. mine — belonging to me
  13. wound — an injury
  14. plane — a tool
  15. cap — a lid
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. file — a tool
  19. kid — child
  20. plane — in geometry
  21. mine — for digging
  22. kid — to tease
  23. cap — a hat
  24. file — a document

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