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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. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  6. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  10. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. The King held a masked ________________.
  13. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  17. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  18. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  19. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  20. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. stick — a piece of wood
  3. shower — to wash
  4. spring — a coil
  5. shower — rain
  6. mate — a friend
  7. file — a tool
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. shower — a meteor shower
  10. ball — a round shape
  11. spring — the season
  12. ball — a dance
  13. fork — to eat with
  14. file — a line of people
  15. cold — an illness
  16. mate — to breed
  17. stick — to attach or keep to
  18. fork — a garden tool
  19. fork — in a road
  20. ball — a great time
  21. spring — of water
  22. stick — a piece of wood
  23. file — a document
  24. cold — not warm

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