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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: mine · wind · pound · chest · pop · rule · spring · file

  1. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  2. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  3. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. We're almost out of ________________.
  8. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  15. You don't need to ________________ round.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  19. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.

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

Answer key

  1. pop — music
  2. mine — belonging to me
  3. rule — government
  4. file — a line of people
  5. rule — to rule out
  6. chest — of your body
  7. pop — soda
  8. spring — of water
  9. wind — moving air
  10. pound — to hit hard
  11. file — a document
  12. rule — a law
  13. wind — moving air
  14. pound — for dogs
  15. pop — to visit
  16. chest — of your body
  17. mine — for digging
  18. mine — an explosive
  19. spring — the season
  20. chest — a box
  21. wind — to turn a key
  22. file — a tool
  23. spring — a coil
  24. pound — a weight

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