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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. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  2. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  3. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  4. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  5. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. The ________________ went through the wall.
  8. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  13. There's no middle ________________.
  14. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  15. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  16. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  20. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  23. He is an ace ________________.
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. nail — for a hammer
  2. fork — to eat with
  3. prune — the fruit
  4. row — to paddle
  5. prune — to trim
  6. tear — to rip
  7. nail — for a hammer
  8. ground — crushed
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. tear — from crying
  11. cold — not warm
  12. pitcher — a jug
  13. ground — a position
  14. prune — to trim
  15. row — a line
  16. fork — a garden tool
  17. cold — an illness
  18. tear — from crying
  19. fork — in a road
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. nail — on a finger
  23. pitcher — in baseball
  24. ground — the earth

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