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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. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  3. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  4. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  7. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  8. There's no middle ________________.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  12. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  13. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  14. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  15. This piece is in a major ________________.
  16. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. The ________________ went through the wall.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. ground — the earth
  3. squash — the vegetable
  4. branch — of a tree
  5. cold — an illness
  6. key — for a lock
  7. ground — crushed
  8. ground — a position
  9. kid — to tease
  10. spring — of water
  11. nail — for a hammer
  12. branch — of a bank
  13. branch — a division
  14. squash — the sport
  15. key — in music
  16. squash — to crush
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. nail — on a finger
  19. kid — child
  20. key — the most important part
  21. spring — the season
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. nail — for a hammer
  24. spring — a coil

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