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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: ball · sharp · hand · tear · cold · spring · present · nail

  1. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  2. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  7. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  11. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. It's one o'clock ________________.
  15. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  16. The King held a masked ________________.
  17. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  22. The ________________ went through the wall.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a round shape
  2. ball — a great time
  3. cold — an illness
  4. cold — not warm
  5. spring — of water
  6. present — a gift
  7. sharp — clever
  8. spring — the season
  9. hand — in cards
  10. spring — a coil
  11. nail — on a finger
  12. hand — help
  13. tear — from crying
  14. sharp — exactly
  15. sharp — with an edge
  16. ball — a dance
  17. present — the time now
  18. tear — from crying
  19. tear — to rip
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. present — there
  22. nail — for a hammer
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. nail — for a hammer

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