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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. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  4. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  5. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  6. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  7. False peace will not ________________.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  12. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  13. There's no middle ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. That was ________________ to happen.
  17. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  18. He was locked up in a ________________.
  19. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  20. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  21. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — to roll
  2. cold — an illness
  3. cell — a phone
  4. bound — tied together
  5. bowl — a football final
  6. bowl — a dish
  7. last — to go on
  8. tear — from crying
  9. bound — obliged
  10. tear — to rip
  11. last — finally
  12. present — a gift
  13. ground — a position
  14. cold — not warm
  15. tear — from crying
  16. bound — certain
  17. present — there
  18. cell — in a prison
  19. ground — the earth
  20. ground — crushed
  21. last — final
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. present — the time now
  24. cell — in biology

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