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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. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. I've got to change the light ________________.
  3. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  4. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. The light ________________ burned out.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  14. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. bulb — for light
  3. bulb — of a plant
  4. net — for catching
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. cold — an illness
  7. net — after costs
  8. kid — to tease
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. bulb — for light
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. net — in sport
  14. row — to paddle
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. row — a line
  17. cold — not warm
  18. mine — for digging

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