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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: land · mine · saw · clip · season · drill · hand · temple

  1. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  6. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  9. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  10. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  11. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. Did you ________________ the meat?
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  16. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  17. When was this ________________ built?
  18. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  21. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. She's very handy with a ________________.
  24. He works in a ________________ mill.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. land — to come down
  3. clip — for paper
  4. hand — help
  5. season — in sport
  6. drill — a practice
  7. clip — to cut
  8. hand — part of the body
  9. saw — past of 'see'
  10. drill — the tool
  11. temple — a place of worship
  12. mine — for digging
  13. season — to add flavour
  14. clip — a video
  15. temple — side of the head
  16. season — of the year
  17. temple — a place of worship
  18. land — ground
  19. hand — in cards
  20. drill — army training
  21. mine — belonging to me
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. saw — the tool
  24. saw — the tool

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