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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: cold · foot · arm · rule · fall · file · degree · date

  1. My father caught me by the ________________.
  2. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  3. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  4. Have you settled on a ________________?
  5. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  6. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  7. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  8. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  22. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  23. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  24. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.

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

Answer key

  1. arm — part of the body
  2. rule — a law
  3. rule — government
  4. date — on the calendar
  5. arm — a part of something
  6. file — a document
  7. fall — the season
  8. arm — part of the body
  9. file — a tool
  10. date — the fruit
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. cold — an illness
  13. file — a line of people
  14. rule — to rule out
  15. degree — from a university
  16. fall — to drop
  17. degree — an amount
  18. degree — temperature
  19. foot — part of the body
  20. cold — not warm
  21. fall — to drop
  22. foot — the bottom
  23. date — on the calendar
  24. foot — a measure

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