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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 120 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. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  5. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  6. When was this ________________ built?
  7. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  10. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. False peace will not ________________.
  19. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  20. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.

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

Answer key

  1. temple — side of the head
  2. cold — an illness
  3. spring — of water
  4. stick — a piece of wood
  5. present — a gift
  6. temple — a place of worship
  7. stick — a piece of wood
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. stick — to attach or keep to
  10. spring — a coil
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. present — the time now
  14. bat — the animal
  15. temple — a place of worship
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. last — to go on
  19. last — final
  20. last — finally
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. cold — not warm
  23. spring — the season
  24. present — there

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