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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. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  4. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  7. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  8. She's very handy with a ________________.
  9. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  10. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  11. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  12. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  13. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  14. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  15. He works in a ________________ mill.
  16. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  20. The ________________ went through the wall.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. When was this ________________ built?
  23. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  24. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. present — a gift
  2. cold — not warm
  3. temple — a place of worship
  4. nail — on a finger
  5. cold — an illness
  6. nail — for a hammer
  7. temple — side of the head
  8. saw — the tool
  9. present — the time now
  10. straw — a straw man
  11. wound — an injury
  12. race — the arms race
  13. race — a contest
  14. wound — past of 'wind'
  15. saw — the tool
  16. present — there
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. saw — past of 'see'
  20. nail — for a hammer
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. temple — a place of worship
  23. wound — an injury
  24. race — humankind

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