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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. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  2. Have you found your soul ________________?
  3. False peace will not ________________.
  4. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  5. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  8. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  24. I had a ________________ with my boss today.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — for digging
  2. mate — a partner
  3. last — to go on
  4. craft — a handicraft
  5. mate — to breed
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. row — a line
  8. last — final
  9. cold — not warm
  10. craft — boats
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. hand — help
  13. row — to paddle
  14. hand — in cards
  15. mate — a friend
  16. cold — an illness
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. bat — the animal
  19. craft — a skill
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. mine — belonging to me
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. last — finally
  24. row — a quarrel

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