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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 120 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. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  2. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  4. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  8. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  9. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  10. There's no middle ________________.
  11. It's one o'clock ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  14. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  19. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  20. That was a fun ________________.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  23. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  24. He's quite ________________, isn't he?

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — with an edge
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. mine — for digging
  4. straw — dry grass
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. cold — not warm
  7. deal — to handle
  8. straw — a straw man
  9. mine — belonging to me
  10. ground — a position
  11. sharp — exactly
  12. cold — an illness
  13. march — music
  14. deal — a big deal
  15. game — wild animals
  16. ground — the earth
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. march — the month
  19. ground — crushed
  20. game — a match
  21. march — the month
  22. deal — an agreement
  23. straw — to clutch at straws
  24. sharp — clever

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