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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 116 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: cold · land · snap · cell · file · wind · present · rock

  1. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  4. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  5. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  6. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. When are we going to ________________?
  9. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  10. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  19. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  22. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  23. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  24. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. cold — not warm
  3. rock — to move gently
  4. present — there
  5. cell — in biology
  6. rock — music
  7. land — a country
  8. land — to come down
  9. file — a line of people
  10. rock — a stone
  11. cold — an illness
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. present — the time now
  14. wind — moving air
  15. file — a document
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. file — a tool
  19. wind — moving air
  20. land — ground
  21. snap — to snap out of it
  22. present — a gift
  23. cell — a phone
  24. snap — to speak sharply

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