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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  3. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  4. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  5. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  6. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  7. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  13. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  14. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  15. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  16. It's one o'clock ________________.
  17. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  18. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  19. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  20. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  21. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  22. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  23. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  24. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. tear — to rip
  3. drill — the tool
  4. racket — for tennis
  5. cap — a lid
  6. racket — a loud noise
  7. racket — for tennis
  8. cold — an illness
  9. wound — past of 'wind'
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. march — the month
  12. wound — an injury
  13. wound — an injury
  14. march — the month
  15. sharp — with an edge
  16. sharp — exactly
  17. cap — of ice
  18. drill — a practice
  19. tear — from crying
  20. cap — a hat
  21. tear — from crying
  22. march — music
  23. sharp — clever
  24. drill — army training

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