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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. False peace will not ________________.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  7. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  11. We're on a ________________ here.
  12. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  13. He is an ace ________________.
  14. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  15. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  16. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  19. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  20. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  23. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  24. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.

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

Answer key

  1. last — to go on
  2. chest — of your body
  3. last — final
  4. roll — a list
  5. cold — not warm
  6. chest — a box
  7. pit — a hole
  8. chest — of your body
  9. cold — an illness
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. roll — on a roll
  12. drill — the tool
  13. pitcher — in baseball
  14. drill — army training
  15. pit — in a race
  16. roll — a cake
  17. last — finally
  18. calf — a young animal
  19. calf — of the leg
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. pit — a fruit stone
  23. drill — a practice
  24. calf — a young animal

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