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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 president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  8. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  9. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  10. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. False peace will not ________________.
  19. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  20. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — to crush
  2. bat — the animal
  3. bore — gave birth
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. cold — not warm
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. bore — to drill
  8. bore — to tire
  9. lash — an eyelash
  10. squash — the vegetable
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. cold — an illness
  14. last — final
  15. degree — from a university
  16. squash — the sport
  17. wind — moving air
  18. last — to go on
  19. wind — moving air
  20. lash — to lash out
  21. degree — an amount
  22. lash — a whip stroke
  23. degree — temperature
  24. last — finally

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