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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. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The ________________ took off on time.
  9. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  10. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  16. False peace will not ________________.
  17. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  23. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  24. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.

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

Answer key

  1. object — an aim
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. spring — the season
  4. object — to protest
  5. cold — not warm
  6. spring — a coil
  7. cold — an illness
  8. plane — an aircraft
  9. plane — in geometry
  10. object — a thing
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. last — finally
  13. spring — of water
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. last — final
  16. last — to go on
  17. tear — from crying
  18. mine — for digging
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. plane — a tool
  23. tear — to rip
  24. tear — from crying

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