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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. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  2. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  3. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  4. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  5. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  6. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  10. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  11. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  12. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  15. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  16. Don't do anything ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  20. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. present — a gift
  2. mine — belonging to me
  3. wound — past of 'wind'
  4. face — to point toward
  5. bore — gave birth
  6. mine — for digging
  7. cold — not warm
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. bore — to tire
  10. face — to confront
  11. rash — on the skin
  12. present — the time now
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. wound — an injury
  15. rash — a series
  16. rash — hasty
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. kid — child
  19. face — part of the head
  20. bore — to drill
  21. kid — to tease
  22. wound — an injury
  23. present — there
  24. cold — an illness

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