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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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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. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  2. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  3. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  4. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  5. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  6. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. It's one o'clock ________________.
  11. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  17. False peace will not ________________.
  18. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — with an edge
  2. rest — a break
  3. present — a gift
  4. last — final
  5. sharp — clever
  6. rest — what's left
  7. spring — the season
  8. cold — an illness
  9. spring — of water
  10. sharp — exactly
  11. last — finally
  12. spring — a coil
  13. present — there
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. cold — not warm
  16. present — the time now
  17. last — to go on
  18. rest — what's left

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