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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 water is too ________________.
  2. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  3. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  4. She's very handy with a ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  8. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. That was a fun ________________.
  12. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  15. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  16. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  19. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  20. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  21. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. He works in a ________________ mill.
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. game — wild animals
  3. trunk — of a tree
  4. saw — the tool
  5. cold — an illness
  6. bat — the animal
  7. trunk — of an elephant
  8. saw — past of 'see'
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. tear — to rip
  11. game — a match
  12. bass — low music
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. snap — to click
  15. snap — to speak sharply
  16. snap — to snap out of it
  17. tear — from crying
  18. bass — the instrument
  19. trunk — of a car
  20. tear — from crying
  21. bass — the fish
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. saw — the tool
  24. game — a kind of play

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