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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. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  2. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  7. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  8. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  13. It's one o'clock ________________.
  14. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  15. The ________________ went through the wall.
  16. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  20. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  21. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  22. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  23. He was locked up in a ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — clever
  2. sharp — with an edge
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. lean — thin
  5. cold — not warm
  6. mine — for digging
  7. net — in sport
  8. net — after costs
  9. tear — to rip
  10. nail — on a finger
  11. cold — an illness
  12. lean — to rest against
  13. sharp — exactly
  14. nail — for a hammer
  15. nail — for a hammer
  16. mine — belonging to me
  17. tear — from crying
  18. tear — from crying
  19. cell — a phone
  20. lean — to bend
  21. net — for catching
  22. cell — in biology
  23. cell — in a prison
  24. cold — the Cold War

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