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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 ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  5. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  9. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  10. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  13. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  14. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  15. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  16. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  24. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?

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

Answer key

  1. bat — for baseball
  2. bat — the animal
  3. hand — in cards
  4. straw — dry grass
  5. hide — to keep secret
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. rest — a break
  9. hide — animal skin
  10. court — of law
  11. court — for sport
  12. scale — in music
  13. hand — help
  14. rest — what's left
  15. court — of a king
  16. scale — for weighing
  17. file — a line of people
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. scale — size or range
  20. file — a document
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. file — a tool
  23. rest — what's left
  24. hide — to keep secret

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