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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. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  5. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. He was locked up in a ________________.
  11. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  19. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  20. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  24. There's no middle ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stick — a piece of wood
  2. ground — crushed
  3. spring — of water
  4. fall — to drop
  5. ground — the earth
  6. spring — a coil
  7. fall — the season
  8. spring — the season
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. cell — in a prison
  11. stick — to attach or keep to
  12. shower — to wash
  13. ruler — a monarch
  14. cell — in biology
  15. shower — rain
  16. cell — a phone
  17. cold — not warm
  18. fall — to drop
  19. ruler — for measuring
  20. ruler — for measuring
  21. cold — an illness
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. stick — a piece of wood
  24. ground — a position

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