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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. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  4. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  5. This piece is in a major ________________.
  6. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  9. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  10. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  14. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  22. I can't ________________ this cold.
  23. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. pit — a hole
  2. tear — from crying
  3. key — the most important part
  4. tear — from crying
  5. key — in music
  6. pit — in a race
  7. cold — an illness
  8. stand — on your feet
  9. key — for a lock
  10. lean — to rest against
  11. cold — not warm
  12. spring — the season
  13. lean — to bend
  14. pit — a fruit stone
  15. spring — of water
  16. lean — thin
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. tear — to rip
  19. spring — a coil
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. cell — a phone
  22. stand — to bear
  23. stand — for spectators
  24. cell — in biology

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