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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 120 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 water is too ________________.
  2. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  3. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  4. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  5. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. There's no middle ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  12. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  13. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  14. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  15. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  20. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  21. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. board — to get on
  3. rock — to move gently
  4. ground — crushed
  5. ground — the earth
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. bat — the animal
  8. cold — an illness
  9. ground — a position
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. row — a quarrel
  12. row — to paddle
  13. row — a line
  14. trunk — of a car
  15. rock — a stone
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. board — a committee
  18. kid — to tease
  19. board — a flat piece
  20. rock — music
  21. trunk — of an elephant
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. kid — child
  24. trunk — of a tree

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