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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. We're almost out of ________________.
  3. You don't need to ________________ round.
  4. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  5. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  6. When was this ________________ built?
  7. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  11. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  12. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  13. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  16. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  17. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  18. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  19. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  20. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  21. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  22. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  23. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  24. We had a fire ________________ at school today.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. pop — soda
  3. pop — to visit
  4. wound — past of 'wind'
  5. wake — to stop sleeping
  6. temple — a place of worship
  7. wind — moving air
  8. cold — an illness
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. wound — an injury
  11. mark — to pay attention
  12. mark — a trace
  13. drill — army training
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. temple — a place of worship
  16. temple — side of the head
  17. mark — a grade
  18. wound — an injury
  19. wind — moving air
  20. wake — before a funeral
  21. wake — a trail
  22. drill — the tool
  23. pop — music
  24. drill — a practice

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