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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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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: game · spell · hand · last · sharp · cold · track · kick

  1. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  2. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. It's one o'clock ________________.
  8. How do you ________________ your surname?
  9. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  10. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  11. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  12. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  16. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  17. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  18. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  19. False peace will not ________________.
  20. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  21. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  22. That was a fun ________________.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — with an edge
  2. kick — with a leg
  3. cold — an illness
  4. last — final
  5. hand — help
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. sharp — exactly
  8. spell — letters
  9. track — a song
  10. track — a path
  11. kick — a thrill
  12. spell — magic
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. kick — in football
  16. spell — a short time
  17. sharp — clever
  18. last — finally
  19. last — to go on
  20. hand — in cards
  21. track — to keep track
  22. game — a match
  23. cold — not warm
  24. game — wild animals

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