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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 116 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.

Words on the sheet
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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: cold · mine · rule · present · lie · spring · land · game

  1. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  8. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  9. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  19. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. That was a fun ________________.
  22. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  23. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  24. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. lie — to recline
  3. land — to come down
  4. rule — a law
  5. cold — an illness
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. rule — government
  8. spring — of water
  9. lie — an untruth
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. spring — a coil
  12. cold — not warm
  13. mine — for digging
  14. land — ground
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. rule — to rule out
  17. spring — the season
  18. land — a country
  19. present — there
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. game — a match
  22. present — the time now
  23. lie — an untruth
  24. present — a gift

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