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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 120 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. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  3. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  4. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  5. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  6. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  16. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  19. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  20. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  21. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  22. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  23. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. wake — before a funeral
  3. root — of a word
  4. scale — in music
  5. mate — a friend
  6. wake — to stop sleeping
  7. tear — to rip
  8. straw — a straw man
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. cold — not warm
  11. track — to keep track
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. mate — to breed
  14. tear — from crying
  15. track — a song
  16. root — the cause
  17. tear — from crying
  18. scale — for weighing
  19. wake — a trail
  20. root — of a plant
  21. track — a path
  22. straw — to clutch at straws
  23. scale — size or range
  24. cold — an illness

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