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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: snap · fan · hide · cold · wound · temple · date · row

  1. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  5. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  6. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  7. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  8. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  9. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  10. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  11. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  12. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  13. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  14. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  15. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  16. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  17. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  18. Have you settled on a ________________?
  19. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  20. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  21. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  22. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. When was this ________________ built?

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

Answer key

  1. temple — a place of worship
  2. cold — an illness
  3. cold — not warm
  4. temple — side of the head
  5. wound — an injury
  6. fan — a supporter
  7. wound — past of 'wind'
  8. snap — to snap out of it
  9. snap — to speak sharply
  10. fan — to cool the air
  11. date — on the calendar
  12. date — the fruit
  13. snap — to click
  14. fan — a supporter
  15. row — to paddle
  16. hide — animal skin
  17. row — a quarrel
  18. date — on the calendar
  19. hide — to keep secret
  20. row — a line
  21. wound — an injury
  22. hide — to keep secret
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. temple — a place of worship

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