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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 120 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. The water is too ________________.
  2. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  5. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  6. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  7. It's one o'clock ________________.
  8. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  9. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  10. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  11. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  12. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  13. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  14. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  18. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  19. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  20. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  21. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  22. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  23. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  24. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. racket — for tennis
  3. chest — of your body
  4. lean — to bend
  5. lean — thin
  6. racket — a loud noise
  7. sharp — exactly
  8. chest — a box
  9. racket — for tennis
  10. ruler — a monarch
  11. wake — before a funeral
  12. sharp — with an edge
  13. branch — a division
  14. branch — of a bank
  15. cold — an illness
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. ruler — for measuring
  18. chest — of your body
  19. wake — a trail
  20. ruler — for measuring
  21. branch — of a tree
  22. sharp — clever
  23. lean — to rest against
  24. wake — to stop sleeping

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