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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. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. Have you found your soul ________________?
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  15. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  16. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  17. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  20. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. I'll be taking the ________________.
  24. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. mate — a partner
  3. cold — not warm
  4. mate — a friend
  5. land — ground
  6. land — to come down
  7. lean — to rest against
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. tear — from crying
  10. spring — the season
  11. spring — a coil
  12. cold — an illness
  13. spring — of water
  14. tear — to rip
  15. tube — a container
  16. lean — to bend
  17. mate — to breed
  18. tear — from crying
  19. lean — thin
  20. tube — in a tire
  21. kid — child
  22. land — a country
  23. tube — the underground
  24. kid — to tease

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