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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 had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  4. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  7. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  8. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  9. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  10. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  18. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  24. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. kid — child
  3. wound — an injury
  4. face — to point toward
  5. cold — not warm
  6. craft — boats
  7. stick — a piece of wood
  8. stick — a piece of wood
  9. wound — past of 'wind'
  10. craft — a skill
  11. kid — to tease
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. face — part of the head
  14. wound — an injury
  15. band — a music group
  16. file — a tool
  17. band — a ring
  18. face — to confront
  19. file — a document
  20. stick — to attach or keep to
  21. file — a line of people
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. craft — a handicraft
  24. band — a rubber band

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