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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 120 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: object · capital · face · cold · prune · rule · file · rest

  1. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  4. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  5. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  6. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  9. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  19. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  20. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  21. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  24. She had a strange look on her ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rule — government
  2. cold — not warm
  3. rule — a law
  4. object — to protest
  5. object — an aim
  6. rest — a break
  7. capital — money
  8. face — to confront
  9. rest — what's left
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. file — a document
  12. face — to point toward
  13. file — a tool
  14. prune — to trim
  15. file — a line of people
  16. rule — to rule out
  17. cold — an illness
  18. prune — the fruit
  19. rest — what's left
  20. object — a thing
  21. prune — to trim
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. capital — a city
  24. face — part of the head

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