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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. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. Have you found your soul ________________?
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. Don't do anything ________________.
  5. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  6. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  7. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  8. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  11. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  12. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  13. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  14. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  17. False peace will not ________________.
  18. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  19. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  20. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. mate — a partner
  3. tear — from crying
  4. rash — hasty
  5. last — finally
  6. net — after costs
  7. wind — to turn a key
  8. wind — moving air
  9. tear — from crying
  10. race — the arms race
  11. mate — a friend
  12. net — for catching
  13. race — humankind
  14. rash — a series
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. race — a contest
  17. last — to go on
  18. wind — moving air
  19. mate — to breed
  20. rash — on the skin
  21. tear — to rip
  22. net — in sport
  23. cold — an illness
  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