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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. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  8. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  19. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  22. There's no middle ________________.
  23. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  24. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.

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

Answer key

  1. dip — a sauce
  2. ground — crushed
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. spring — a coil
  5. rule — a law
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. calf — of the leg
  8. rule — government
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. wind — moving air
  11. spring — the season
  12. spring — of water
  13. cold — not warm
  14. calf — a young animal
  15. cold — an illness
  16. calf — a young animal
  17. bat — the animal
  18. dip — to sink
  19. dip — to dunk
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. wind — moving air
  22. ground — a position
  23. ground — the earth
  24. rule — to rule out

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