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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. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. Have you met the new head ________________?
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  7. He is an ace ________________.
  8. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  11. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  14. He works in a ________________ mill.
  15. She's very handy with a ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  20. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  23. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  24. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — to cool the air
  2. coach — a trainer
  3. tear — from crying
  4. coach — pulled by horses
  5. cold — an illness
  6. snap — to speak sharply
  7. pitcher — in baseball
  8. coach — a trainer
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. tear — from crying
  12. cold — not warm
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. saw — the tool
  15. saw — the tool
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. saw — past of 'see'
  18. capital — a city
  19. snap — to click
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. capital — money
  22. tear — to rip
  23. snap — to snap out of it
  24. fan — a supporter

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