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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 116 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. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  2. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  3. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  4. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  5. There's no middle ________________.
  6. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  7. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  8. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  9. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  10. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  11. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  12. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  16. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  17. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  21. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  22. The ball is in your ________________.
  23. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  24. False peace will not ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — finally
  2. racket — a loud noise
  3. racket — for tennis
  4. tear — from crying
  5. ground — a position
  6. scale — for weighing
  7. scale — in music
  8. scale — size or range
  9. racket — for tennis
  10. last — final
  11. band — a music group
  12. band — a rubber band
  13. tear — to rip
  14. cold — not warm
  15. tear — from crying
  16. ground — crushed
  17. court — of a king
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. cold — an illness
  20. ground — the earth
  21. band — a ring
  22. court — for sport
  23. court — of law
  24. last — to go on

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