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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 116 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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  3. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  4. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  5. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  6. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  9. You don't need to ________________ round.
  10. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  11. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. Did you ________________ the meat?
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  23. We're almost out of ________________.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. season — in sport
  3. season — of the year
  4. pop — music
  5. wound — an injury
  6. tear — from crying
  7. wound — an injury
  8. wound — past of 'wind'
  9. pop — to visit
  10. kid — to tease
  11. tear — from crying
  12. row — a line
  13. row — a quarrel
  14. cold — not warm
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. season — to add flavour
  17. hand — in cards
  18. row — to paddle
  19. hand — help
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. kid — child
  22. tear — to rip
  23. pop — soda
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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