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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. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  2. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  3. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  4. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  5. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  6. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. That was a fun ________________.
  15. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  20. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  21. Have you found your soul ________________?
  22. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a friend
  2. wound — past of 'wind'
  3. straw — a straw man
  4. drill — the tool
  5. pound — a weight
  6. straw — dry grass
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. cold — an illness
  9. drill — a practice
  10. spring — of water
  11. spring — the season
  12. game — a kind of play
  13. spring — a coil
  14. game — a match
  15. drill — army training
  16. game — wild animals
  17. wound — an injury
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. wound — an injury
  20. pound — for dogs
  21. mate — a partner
  22. mate — to breed
  23. cold — not warm
  24. pound — to hit hard

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