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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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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: face · saw · file · tear · cold · kid · drill · mate

  1. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. He works in a ________________ mill.
  6. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  13. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  14. She's very handy with a ________________.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  19. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  23. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  24. Have you found your soul ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. mate — to breed
  2. kid — to tease
  3. drill — a practice
  4. kid — child
  5. saw — the tool
  6. tear — from crying
  7. cold — an illness
  8. tear — from crying
  9. tear — to rip
  10. face — part of the head
  11. cold — not warm
  12. drill — army training
  13. face — to point toward
  14. saw — the tool
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. file — a tool
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. mate — a friend
  19. saw — past of 'see'
  20. file — a document
  21. file — a line of people
  22. drill — the tool
  23. face — to confront
  24. mate — a partner

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