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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: drill · staff · rule · cell · cold · shower · clip · mine

  1. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  2. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  3. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  7. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  16. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  17. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  20. He was locked up in a ________________.
  21. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  22. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  24. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.

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

Answer key

  1. rule — government
  2. shower — a meteor shower
  3. mine — for digging
  4. clip — for paper
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. staff — a stick
  7. staff — employees
  8. clip — a video
  9. cold — an illness
  10. cell — a phone
  11. shower — rain
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. clip — to cut
  14. shower — to wash
  15. staff — employees
  16. drill — army training
  17. drill — the tool
  18. cold — not warm
  19. drill — a practice
  20. cell — in a prison
  21. rule — a law
  22. mine — belonging to me
  23. cell — in biology
  24. rule — to rule out

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