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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 water is too ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  5. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  6. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  7. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  8. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  9. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  12. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. The ________________ went through the wall.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  20. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. cold — an illness
  3. field — farmland
  4. scale — in music
  5. stick — a piece of wood
  6. scale — for weighing
  7. stick — to attach or keep to
  8. nail — for a hammer
  9. nail — on a finger
  10. clip — to cut
  11. tear — from crying
  12. stick — a piece of wood
  13. tear — to rip
  14. clip — a video
  15. field — a subject
  16. nail — for a hammer
  17. chest — of your body
  18. tear — from crying
  19. chest — a box
  20. scale — size or range
  21. clip — for paper
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. chest — of your body
  24. field — for sport

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