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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. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Have you settled on a ________________?
  4. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  5. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  6. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  7. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  8. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  9. He is an ace ________________.
  10. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  23. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  24. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — all right
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. date — on the calendar
  4. fine — high quality
  5. wave — a sudden rise
  6. fine — a penalty
  7. date — the fruit
  8. tear — to rip
  9. pitcher — in baseball
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. field — a subject
  12. date — on the calendar
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. cold — an illness
  15. wave — with your hand
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. straw — to clutch at straws
  18. field — farmland
  19. field — for sport
  20. cold — not warm
  21. tear — from crying
  22. wave — of the sea
  23. pitcher — a jug
  24. tear — from crying

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