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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. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  2. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  3. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  4. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  5. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  6. He was locked up in a ________________.
  7. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  8. It's one o'clock ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  11. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  12. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Don't do anything ________________.
  15. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  16. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  17. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  18. My father caught me by the ________________.
  19. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  20. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  21. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  22. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. lean — thin
  2. rash — on the skin
  3. lean — to bend
  4. sharp — clever
  5. arm — a part of something
  6. cell — in a prison
  7. tear — from crying
  8. sharp — exactly
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. cell — a phone
  11. arm — part of the body
  12. lean — to rest against
  13. cold — not warm
  14. rash — hasty
  15. march — the month
  16. rash — a series
  17. cell — in biology
  18. arm — part of the body
  19. sharp — with an edge
  20. tear — to rip
  21. tear — from crying
  22. march — music
  23. cold — an illness
  24. march — the month

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