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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. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  2. He was locked up in a ________________.
  3. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. False peace will not ________________.
  7. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  8. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  9. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  12. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  13. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  17. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — finally
  2. cell — in a prison
  3. jam — a tight spot
  4. cell — a phone
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. last — to go on
  7. rule — a law
  8. prune — to trim
  9. prune — the fruit
  10. kid — child
  11. rule — to rule out
  12. jam — to spread on bread
  13. chest — of your body
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. chest — of your body
  16. prune — to trim
  17. last — final
  18. cold — an illness
  19. rule — government
  20. chest — a box
  21. kid — to tease
  22. cell — in biology
  23. cold — not warm
  24. jam — in traffic

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