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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: kid · land · file · press · can · last · cold · cell

  1. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  3. False peace will not ________________.
  4. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  7. He was locked up in a ________________.
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. Did you ________________ the button?
  10. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  11. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  19. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  20. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. When are we going to ________________?
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. last — final
  3. last — to go on
  4. can — a tin
  5. cell — a phone
  6. press — a publisher
  7. cell — in a prison
  8. kid — child
  9. press — to push
  10. kid — to tease
  11. press — newspapers
  12. file — a tool
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. cell — in biology
  15. cold — an illness
  16. file — a line of people
  17. cold — not warm
  18. land — ground
  19. can — to be able to
  20. can — a tin
  21. file — a document
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. land — to come down
  24. last — finally

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