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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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Word bank
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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: ball · bat · file · land · temple · pass · hand · straw

  1. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  6. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  9. When was this ________________ built?
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. The King held a masked ________________.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  22. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  23. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  24. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. temple — a place of worship
  3. bat — the animal
  4. file — a document
  5. straw — a straw man
  6. file — a tool
  7. land — ground
  8. hand — in cards
  9. temple — a place of worship
  10. file — a line of people
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. pass — a permit
  14. hand — help
  15. temple — side of the head
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. straw — to clutch at straws
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. ball — a dance
  20. land — to come down
  21. ball — a great time
  22. pass — to spend time
  23. ball — a round shape
  24. pass — to succeed

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