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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. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  2. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  3. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  4. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  14. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  15. He is an ace ________________.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  22. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  23. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  24. Fill up this ________________ with water.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — past of 'wind'
  2. present — there
  3. wound — an injury
  4. wound — an injury
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. spring — the season
  7. pitcher — a jug
  8. cold — not warm
  9. present — a gift
  10. spring — of water
  11. degree — an amount
  12. spring — a coil
  13. present — the time now
  14. trunk — of a car
  15. pitcher — in baseball
  16. degree — temperature
  17. chest — a box
  18. chest — of your body
  19. cold — an illness
  20. degree — from a university
  21. trunk — of an elephant
  22. chest — of your body
  23. trunk — of a tree
  24. pitcher — a jug

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