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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. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  2. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  3. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  4. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  7. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  8. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  11. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  12. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  13. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  17. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  18. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. He is an ace ________________.
  21. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  22. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  23. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. toast — bread
  2. lie — to recline
  3. pitch — completely
  4. tear — from crying
  5. game — a match
  6. toast — a drink to someone
  7. game — a kind of play
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. tear — to rip
  10. toast — the most admired
  11. lie — an untruth
  12. lie — an untruth
  13. tear — from crying
  14. row — a line
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. wound — an injury
  17. pitcher — a jug
  18. wound — past of 'wind'
  19. game — wild animals
  20. pitcher — in baseball
  21. pitch — a sports field
  22. pitch — a sales talk
  23. wound — an injury
  24. row — to paddle

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