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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. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  2. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  3. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  4. You don't need to ________________ round.
  5. We're almost out of ________________.
  6. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  7. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  17. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  18. The King held a masked ________________.
  19. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  23. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  24. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.

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

Answer key

  1. kick — a thrill
  2. tear — from crying
  3. shower — a meteor shower
  4. pop — to visit
  5. pop — soda
  6. pop — music
  7. ball — a great time
  8. chest — of your body
  9. kick — in football
  10. cold — an illness
  11. shower — to wash
  12. tear — from crying
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. chest — of your body
  15. shower — rain
  16. kick — with a leg
  17. track — a path
  18. ball — a dance
  19. chest — a box
  20. cold — not warm
  21. tear — to rip
  22. ball — a round shape
  23. track — to keep track
  24. track — a song

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