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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. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  2. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  3. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  4. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  7. The ball is in your ________________.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. I've got to change the light ________________.
  18. The light ________________ burned out.
  19. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. False peace will not ________________.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. mark — to pay attention
  2. track — a song
  3. track — a path
  4. mark — a trace
  5. cold — not warm
  6. last — final
  7. court — for sport
  8. file — a line of people
  9. cold — an illness
  10. mark — a grade
  11. hand — in cards
  12. track — to keep track
  13. court — of a king
  14. file — a document
  15. court — of law
  16. hand — help
  17. bulb — for light
  18. bulb — for light
  19. bulb — of a plant
  20. file — a tool
  21. hand — part of the body
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. last — to go on
  24. last — finally

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