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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. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  2. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  4. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. Have you met the new head ________________?
  9. She's very handy with a ________________.
  10. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  11. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  16. He works in a ________________ mill.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  19. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. wound — an injury
  3. march — music
  4. march — the month
  5. spring — the season
  6. march — the month
  7. tear — from crying
  8. coach — a trainer
  9. saw — the tool
  10. straw — a straw man
  11. tear — to rip
  12. spring — a coil
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. cold — not warm
  15. straw — to clutch at straws
  16. saw — the tool
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. coach — a trainer
  19. coach — pulled by horses
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. tear — from crying
  22. spring — of water
  23. cold — an illness
  24. saw — past of 'see'

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