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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. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  4. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  8. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  11. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  18. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. The ball is in your ________________.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. Have you found your soul ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a friend
  2. cold — not warm
  3. cap — a hat
  4. mate — to breed
  5. cold — an illness
  6. bat — the animal
  7. cap — a lid
  8. cap — of ice
  9. file — a document
  10. mine — for digging
  11. mine — belonging to me
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. court — of a king
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. wound — an injury
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. wound — an injury
  18. court — of law
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. court — for sport
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. file — a line of people
  23. file — a tool
  24. mate — a partner

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