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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. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  5. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  6. He is an ace ________________.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  11. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  16. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  17. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  18. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  19. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. The ________________ market has crashed.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. cold — an illness
  3. land — to come down
  4. pitcher — a jug
  5. stick — a piece of wood
  6. pitcher — in baseball
  7. wound — an injury
  8. kick — a thrill
  9. tear — to rip
  10. stick — a piece of wood
  11. kick — in football
  12. tear — from crying
  13. kick — with a leg
  14. land — a country
  15. land — ground
  16. stock — goods
  17. stick — to attach or keep to
  18. pitcher — a jug
  19. stock — a soup base
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. wound — an injury
  23. stock — shares
  24. cold — not warm

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