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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. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  2. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  3. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  6. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  7. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  12. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. It's one o'clock ________________.
  19. False peace will not ________________.
  20. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  21. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  22. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  23. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. net — for catching
  2. calf — a young animal
  3. sharp — clever
  4. kid — to tease
  5. sharp — with an edge
  6. calf — of the leg
  7. last — final
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. fan — a supporter
  10. cold — an illness
  11. last — finally
  12. fan — a supporter
  13. spring — of water
  14. net — after costs
  15. spring — a coil
  16. cold — not warm
  17. kid — child
  18. sharp — exactly
  19. last — to go on
  20. spring — the season
  21. net — in sport
  22. fan — to cool the air
  23. calf — a young animal
  24. cold — the Cold War

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