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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  4. It's one o'clock ________________.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  7. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. Have you found your soul ________________?
  19. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  22. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  23. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. hide — to keep secret
  4. sharp — exactly
  5. game — a match
  6. hide — animal skin
  7. pitch — a sports field
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. mate — to breed
  10. spring — of water
  11. sharp — with an edge
  12. cold — not warm
  13. spring — a coil
  14. mate — a friend
  15. spring — the season
  16. hide — to keep secret
  17. game — wild animals
  18. mate — a partner
  19. wind — moving air
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. pitch — a sales talk
  22. sharp — clever
  23. pitch — completely
  24. wind — moving air

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