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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 112 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: land · cold · rule · root · chip · mouse · cell · bat

  1. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  13. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  14. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  17. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  18. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  21. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  22. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  23. When are we going to ________________?
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. chip — to eat
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. cell — a phone
  5. root — the cause
  6. bat — the animal
  7. rule — a law
  8. cold — not warm
  9. root — of a word
  10. cold — an illness
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. mouse — the animal
  13. mouse — the animal
  14. chip — in a computer
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. mouse — for a computer
  17. chip — for betting
  18. cell — in biology
  19. land — a country
  20. root — of a plant
  21. rule — government
  22. rule — to rule out
  23. land — to come down
  24. bat — in an idiom

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