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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. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  2. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  3. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  4. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  5. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  6. How do you ________________ your surname?
  7. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  8. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  9. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  10. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. It's one o'clock ________________.
  13. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. When was this ________________ built?
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Have you met the new head ________________?
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  23. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  24. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — with an edge
  2. spell — magic
  3. spring — a coil
  4. temple — side of the head
  5. chest — of your body
  6. spell — letters
  7. coach — pulled by horses
  8. coach — a trainer
  9. scale — size or range
  10. temple — a place of worship
  11. spring — the season
  12. sharp — exactly
  13. scale — in music
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. temple — a place of worship
  16. cold — an illness
  17. coach — a trainer
  18. chest — a box
  19. chest — of your body
  20. cold — not warm
  21. spring — of water
  22. spell — a short time
  23. sharp — clever
  24. scale — for weighing

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