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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 116 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. There's no middle ________________.
  2. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  3. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  4. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  5. This piece is in a major ________________.
  6. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  7. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  11. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  12. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  21. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  22. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — a position
  2. dip — to dunk
  3. key — the most important part
  4. tear — to rip
  5. key — in music
  6. band — a rubber band
  7. dip — a sauce
  8. tear — from crying
  9. file — a tool
  10. key — for a lock
  11. tear — from crying
  12. band — a music group
  13. file — a document
  14. file — a line of people
  15. ground — the earth
  16. spring — the season
  17. spring — a coil
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. spring — of water
  20. ground — crushed
  21. band — a ring
  22. dip — to sink
  23. cold — an illness
  24. cold — not warm

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