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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 pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  5. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  10. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  14. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  17. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  18. False peace will not ________________.
  19. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  20. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  21. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  22. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  23. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  24. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. mine — an explosive
  3. tear — from crying
  4. scale — in music
  5. scale — size or range
  6. game — a match
  7. chair — a professorship
  8. cold — not warm
  9. mine — belonging to me
  10. craft — a handicraft
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. chair — a leader
  13. last — finally
  14. craft — boats
  15. cold — an illness
  16. game — a kind of play
  17. chair — to sit on
  18. last — to go on
  19. last — final
  20. tear — from crying
  21. scale — for weighing
  22. craft — a skill
  23. mine — for digging
  24. tear — to rip

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