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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: bass · bulb · land · drill · club · capital · file · cold

  1. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  2. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  3. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  9. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  10. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  21. The light ________________ burned out.
  22. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  23. I've got to change the light ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for golf
  2. bass — the instrument
  3. drill — army training
  4. file — a document
  5. club — for dancing
  6. land — a country
  7. file — a tool
  8. bass — the fish
  9. club — a group
  10. drill — a practice
  11. land — ground
  12. capital — money
  13. drill — the tool
  14. file — a line of people
  15. land — to come down
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. cold — not warm
  18. cold — an illness
  19. capital — a city
  20. bass — low music
  21. bulb — for light
  22. bulb — of a plant
  23. bulb — for light
  24. cold — the Cold War

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