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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. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  3. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  8. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  9. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  10. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  11. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  12. False peace will not ________________.
  13. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  16. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  19. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. The ________________ went through the wall.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. When are we going to ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. last — finally
  3. nail — for a hammer
  4. land — ground
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. kid — to tease
  7. jam — in traffic
  8. march — the month
  9. jam — a tight spot
  10. bank — for money
  11. jam — to spread on bread
  12. last — to go on
  13. march — the month
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. nail — on a finger
  16. bank — for money
  17. kid — child
  18. bank — of a river
  19. march — music
  20. cold — not warm
  21. nail — for a hammer
  22. land — a country
  23. cold — an illness
  24. land — to come down

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