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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. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  3. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  9. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  10. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  11. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  12. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  13. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  14. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. False peace will not ________________.
  18. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. There's no middle ________________.
  22. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. kick — in football
  3. wind — to turn a key
  4. hand — in cards
  5. cold — an illness
  6. cold — not warm
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. ground — the earth
  9. ground — crushed
  10. kick — a thrill
  11. spring — of water
  12. snap — to speak sharply
  13. wind — moving air
  14. kick — with a leg
  15. wind — moving air
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. last — to go on
  18. last — finally
  19. spring — a coil
  20. hand — help
  21. ground — a position
  22. snap — to snap out of it
  23. spring — the season
  24. snap — to click

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