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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 116 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. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  2. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  4. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  9. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  12. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  13. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. That was a fun ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  21. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  22. False peace will not ________________.
  23. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — finally
  2. hand — in cards
  3. patient — calm and waiting
  4. root — of a plant
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. cold — not warm
  7. hand — help
  8. game — a kind of play
  9. root — of a word
  10. game — wild animals
  11. patient — a sick person
  12. file — a document
  13. prune — to trim
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. file — a line of people
  16. game — a match
  17. cold — an illness
  18. prune — to trim
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. root — the cause
  21. last — final
  22. last — to go on
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. file — a tool

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