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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  5. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  8. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. False peace will not ________________.
  11. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  18. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. squash — to crush
  3. last — final
  4. present — a gift
  5. squash — the vegetable
  6. land — to come down
  7. present — the time now
  8. squash — the sport
  9. kid — to tease
  10. last — to go on
  11. present — there
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. land — a country
  14. kid — child
  15. cold — an illness
  16. cold — not warm
  17. land — ground
  18. last — finally

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