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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. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. The King held a masked ________________.
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  7. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  10. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  11. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  12. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  15. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  16. False peace will not ________________.
  17. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  18. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  23. Did you ________________ the meat?
  24. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. ball — a dance
  3. hand — help
  4. current — electric
  5. cold — not warm
  6. tear — from crying
  7. season — of the year
  8. tear — from crying
  9. deal — to handle
  10. ball — a round shape
  11. deal — an agreement
  12. hand — part of the body
  13. cold — an illness
  14. deal — a big deal
  15. season — in sport
  16. last — to go on
  17. current — of water
  18. current — happening now
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. ball — a great time
  21. hand — in cards
  22. last — finally
  23. season — to add flavour
  24. tear — to rip

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