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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. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  4. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  7. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  8. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  9. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  10. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. There's no middle ________________.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  15. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  16. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. The ________________ went through the wall.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. Have you met the new head ________________?
  23. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — crushed
  2. cold — not warm
  3. march — music
  4. coach — pulled by horses
  5. march — the month
  6. chair — to sit on
  7. nail — on a finger
  8. shower — a meteor shower
  9. nail — for a hammer
  10. chair — a leader
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. ground — a position
  13. tear — from crying
  14. ground — the earth
  15. tear — from crying
  16. coach — a trainer
  17. cold — an illness
  18. shower — to wash
  19. tear — to rip
  20. nail — for a hammer
  21. march — the month
  22. coach — a trainer
  23. chair — a professorship
  24. shower — rain

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