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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  3. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  4. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  5. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  6. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  7. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  8. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  9. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  12. False peace will not ________________.
  13. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  14. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  15. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  16. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  17. How do you ________________ your surname?
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. Don't do anything ________________.
  23. The ________________ took off on time.
  24. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. spell — a short time
  3. row — a quarrel
  4. lean — to rest against
  5. last — final
  6. last — finally
  7. rash — on the skin
  8. lean — to bend
  9. mine — belonging to me
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. plane — a tool
  12. last — to go on
  13. lean — thin
  14. plane — in geometry
  15. spell — magic
  16. row — a line
  17. spell — letters
  18. mine — for digging
  19. row — to paddle
  20. cold — an illness
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. rash — hasty
  23. plane — an aircraft
  24. rash — a series

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