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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 120 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. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  8. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  9. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  10. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  17. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  22. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  23. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  24. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.

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

Answer key

  1. kick — with a leg
  2. land — ground
  3. kick — a thrill
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. kick — in football
  6. land — a country
  7. wake — to stop sleeping
  8. row — a quarrel
  9. row — a line
  10. tear — from crying
  11. land — to come down
  12. root — the cause
  13. row — to paddle
  14. ruler — for measuring
  15. tear — to rip
  16. ruler — for measuring
  17. root — of a word
  18. cold — an illness
  19. tear — from crying
  20. cold — not warm
  21. wake — a trail
  22. ruler — a monarch
  23. root — of a plant
  24. wake — before a funeral

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