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

Word bank: wind · mine · sharp · chair · cold · tube · chip · wake

  1. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  2. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  6. I'll be taking the ________________.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  9. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  14. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  15. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  16. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  17. It's one o'clock ________________.
  18. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  19. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  20. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  21. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  22. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  23. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  24. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — for digging
  2. chair — to sit on
  3. wind — moving air
  4. cold — an illness
  5. tube — a container
  6. tube — the underground
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. chip — to eat
  9. chair — a professorship
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. wind — moving air
  12. cold — not warm
  13. mine — an explosive
  14. wake — a trail
  15. chip — for betting
  16. chip — in a computer
  17. sharp — exactly
  18. sharp — clever
  19. tube — in a tire
  20. sharp — with an edge
  21. wake — to stop sleeping
  22. wake — before a funeral
  23. chair — a leader
  24. wind — to turn a key

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