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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 coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  2. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  5. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  12. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  13. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  14. That must've been a ________________.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  17. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  18. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  19. David sat on the ________________.
  20. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. swing — in golf
  2. rush — hurry
  3. spring — the season
  4. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  5. bark — of a tree
  6. spring — a coil
  7. cold — an illness
  8. lash — to lash out
  9. wound — an injury
  10. spring — of water
  11. wound — past of 'wind'
  12. rush — to hurry
  13. wound — an injury
  14. rush — a thrill
  15. kid — child
  16. bark — to shout
  17. kid — to tease
  18. bark — a dog's sound
  19. swing — to play on
  20. swing — music
  21. cold — not warm
  22. lash — an eyelash
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. lash — a whip stroke

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