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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. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  2. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  3. It's one o'clock ________________.
  4. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  9. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  13. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  14. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  15. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  16. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  17. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  18. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  19. He is an ace ________________.
  20. He was locked up in a ________________.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  23. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. cell — a phone
  3. sharp — exactly
  4. rest — what's left
  5. hand — help
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. lean — to rest against
  9. lean — thin
  10. cold — an illness
  11. hand — in cards
  12. rest — a break
  13. sharp — with an edge
  14. pitcher — a jug
  15. sharp — clever
  16. lean — to bend
  17. cell — in biology
  18. rest — what's left
  19. pitcher — in baseball
  20. cell — in a prison
  21. cold — not warm
  22. wind — moving air
  23. wind — moving air
  24. cold — the Cold War

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