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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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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 · wind · mine · rush · pop · land · nail · cold

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  9. The ________________ went through the wall.
  10. We're almost out of ________________.
  11. That must've been a ________________.
  12. You don't need to ________________ round.
  13. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  16. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  17. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  18. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  22. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  23. The King held a masked ________________.
  24. You shouldn't ________________ things.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. rush — hurry
  3. wind — moving air
  4. ball — a great time
  5. mine — for digging
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. cold — not warm
  8. pop — music
  9. nail — for a hammer
  10. pop — soda
  11. rush — a thrill
  12. pop — to visit
  13. nail — on a finger
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. land — ground
  16. land — a country
  17. nail — for a hammer
  18. mine — belonging to me
  19. land — to come down
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. wind — moving air
  22. ball — a round shape
  23. ball — a dance
  24. rush — to hurry

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