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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. My mare is ________________ in color.
  3. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  4. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  7. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  8. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  9. We're on a ________________ here.
  10. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  11. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  14. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  19. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. The flowers bloom in the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. bay — a horse colour
  3. roll — a list
  4. bear — the animal
  5. file — a tool
  6. calf — a young animal
  7. chair — to sit on
  8. bear — the animal
  9. roll — on a roll
  10. calf — a young animal
  11. chair — a leader
  12. spring — of water
  13. bear — to put up with
  14. chair — a professorship
  15. file — a document
  16. bay — a part of the sea
  17. cold — an illness
  18. roll — a cake
  19. bay — to keep at bay
  20. spring — a coil
  21. calf — of the leg
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. file — a line of people
  24. spring — the season

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