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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.

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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 looks like a gunshot ________________.
  2. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  3. False peace will not ________________.
  4. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  5. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. Have you met the new head ________________?
  8. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. That was a fun ________________.
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  17. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  24. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. board — a flat piece
  3. last — to go on
  4. coach — pulled by horses
  5. last — final
  6. tear — from crying
  7. coach — a trainer
  8. wound — past of 'wind'
  9. bat — the animal
  10. game — a match
  11. wound — an injury
  12. coach — a trainer
  13. spring — the season
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. tear — to rip
  16. board — a committee
  17. board — to get on
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. spring — a coil
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. game — wild animals
  22. spring — of water
  23. last — finally
  24. tear — from crying

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