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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 · bound · bowl · kid · pound · wound · root · file

  1. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. That was ________________ to happen.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  11. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  18. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  19. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  20. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  21. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. root — of a plant
  2. cold — an illness
  3. bowl — a football final
  4. kid — child
  5. bound — certain
  6. kid — to tease
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. root — the cause
  9. wound — an injury
  10. bowl — a dish
  11. root — of a word
  12. cold — not warm
  13. pound — for dogs
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. pound — to hit hard
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. bound — obliged
  18. pound — a weight
  19. wound — an injury
  20. file — a line of people
  21. bound — tied together
  22. file — a tool
  23. bowl — to roll
  24. file — a document

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