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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 play ________________ in a jazz band.
  2. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  3. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  6. There's no middle ________________.
  7. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  8. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  9. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  10. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  11. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — the instrument
  2. bass — low music
  3. calf — a young animal
  4. kid — to tease
  5. drill — army training
  6. ground — a position
  7. calf — a young animal
  8. drill — the tool
  9. ground — crushed
  10. drill — a practice
  11. ground — the earth
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. bass — the fish
  14. kid — child
  15. mine — for digging
  16. mine — an explosive
  17. capital — a city
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. calf — of the leg
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. cold — an illness
  22. mine — belonging to me
  23. cold — not warm
  24. capital — money

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