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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. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  4. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  5. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  8. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  9. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  14. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. It's one o'clock ________________.
  17. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. He is an ace ________________.
  20. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  21. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  22. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  23. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  24. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — clever
  2. cold — not warm
  3. march — the month
  4. mine — belonging to me
  5. sharp — with an edge
  6. march — music
  7. mine — an explosive
  8. wind — moving air
  9. pitcher — a jug
  10. wind — moving air
  11. ruler — a monarch
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. pitcher — a jug
  14. wind — to turn a key
  15. march — the month
  16. sharp — exactly
  17. calf — a young animal
  18. cold — an illness
  19. pitcher — in baseball
  20. mine — for digging
  21. calf — of the leg
  22. calf — a young animal
  23. ruler — for measuring
  24. ruler — for measuring

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