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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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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: drill · mark · wound · sharp · rush · cold · fall · cell

  1. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  2. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  7. It's one o'clock ________________.
  8. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  9. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  10. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  11. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  12. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  13. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  14. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  15. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  16. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  17. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  18. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  19. He was locked up in a ________________.
  20. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  23. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  24. That must've been a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rush — hurry
  2. wound — an injury
  3. cold — an illness
  4. fall — the season
  5. cold — not warm
  6. fall — to drop
  7. sharp — exactly
  8. cell — a phone
  9. drill — the tool
  10. mark — a trace
  11. mark — a grade
  12. wound — an injury
  13. mark — to pay attention
  14. rush — to hurry
  15. fall — to drop
  16. drill — a practice
  17. sharp — clever
  18. drill — army training
  19. cell — in a prison
  20. cell — in biology
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. sharp — with an edge
  23. wound — past of 'wind'
  24. rush — a thrill

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