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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. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  2. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  3. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  10. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  11. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  12. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  13. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  14. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  15. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  20. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  23. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  24. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. track — to keep track
  3. tear — to rip
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. cold — not warm
  6. shower — rain
  7. vault — an arched ceiling
  8. cold — an illness
  9. net — in sport
  10. band — a ring
  11. track — a path
  12. band — a music group
  13. vault — a safe
  14. march — the month
  15. tear — from crying
  16. march — the month
  17. tear — from crying
  18. net — for catching
  19. track — a song
  20. band — a rubber band
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. march — music
  23. shower — to wash
  24. vault — in gymnastics

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