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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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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  5. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  9. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  10. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  13. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  14. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  18. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. fan — to cool the air
  3. chest — of your body
  4. dip — to sink
  5. dip — to dunk
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. dip — a sauce
  9. fan — a supporter
  10. fan — a supporter
  11. cold — an illness
  12. row — to paddle
  13. row — a quarrel
  14. chest — of your body
  15. kid — child
  16. chest — a box
  17. kid — to tease
  18. cold — not warm

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