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

Word bank: key · foot · mate · cold · row · scale · snap · tear

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  3. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  4. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  5. Have you found your soul ________________?
  6. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  7. This piece is in a major ________________.
  8. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  13. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  14. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  15. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  16. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  22. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  23. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  24. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. foot — part of the body
  3. row — to paddle
  4. key — for a lock
  5. mate — a partner
  6. scale — in music
  7. key — in music
  8. snap — to click
  9. tear — to rip
  10. tear — from crying
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. mate — to breed
  13. scale — for weighing
  14. snap — to snap out of it
  15. mate — a friend
  16. tear — from crying
  17. cold — not warm
  18. key — the most important part
  19. row — a line
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. snap — to speak sharply
  22. foot — the bottom
  23. foot — a measure
  24. scale — size or range

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