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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. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  2. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  10. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  11. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  12. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  13. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  14. Have you met the new head ________________?
  15. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  16. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  17. We're on a ________________ here.
  18. False peace will not ________________.
  19. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  20. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  23. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  24. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!

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

Answer key

  1. rock — music
  2. wake — to stop sleeping
  3. cold — not warm
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. coach — a trainer
  6. bat — the animal
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. cold — an illness
  9. roll — a cake
  10. root — the cause
  11. wake — a trail
  12. rock — a stone
  13. root — of a plant
  14. coach — a trainer
  15. coach — pulled by horses
  16. rock — to move gently
  17. roll — on a roll
  18. last — to go on
  19. root — of a word
  20. roll — a list
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. wake — before a funeral
  23. last — finally
  24. last — final

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