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

  1. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  2. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  11. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  12. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. scale — for weighing
  2. squash — to crush
  3. file — a tool
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. cold — not warm
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. bat — the animal
  9. tear — from crying
  10. squash — the sport
  11. squash — the vegetable
  12. scale — size or range
  13. tear — to rip
  14. cold — an illness
  15. file — a line of people
  16. scale — in music
  17. tear — from crying
  18. file — a document

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