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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: hide · tear · last · ground · temple · cold · cabinet · spring

  1. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  2. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  3. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  4. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  10. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  11. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. There's no middle ________________.
  14. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. False peace will not ________________.
  17. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  18. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  19. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  20. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  21. What do you think of the new ________________?
  22. When was this ________________ built?
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. temple — a place of worship
  2. hide — animal skin
  3. ground — crushed
  4. tear — from crying
  5. spring — of water
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. cabinet — ministers
  8. spring — a coil
  9. ground — the earth
  10. cabinet — a cupboard
  11. last — final
  12. spring — the season
  13. ground — a position
  14. hide — to keep secret
  15. tear — to rip
  16. last — to go on
  17. temple — side of the head
  18. last — finally
  19. hide — to keep secret
  20. tear — from crying
  21. cabinet — ministers
  22. temple — a place of worship
  23. cold — not warm
  24. cold — an illness

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