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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. What do you think of the new ________________?
  2. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. You don't need to ________________ round.
  6. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  9. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  10. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  11. We're almost out of ________________.
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  14. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  15. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  16. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  17. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  18. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  21. I'll be taking the ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. cabinet — ministers
  2. mine — an explosive
  3. kid — to tease
  4. wind — moving air
  5. pop — to visit
  6. wind — moving air
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. cabinet — ministers
  9. tube — in a tire
  10. tube — a container
  11. pop — soda
  12. mine — for digging
  13. scale — for weighing
  14. wind — to turn a key
  15. cabinet — a cupboard
  16. scale — size or range
  17. mine — belonging to me
  18. scale — in music
  19. kid — child
  20. pop — music
  21. tube — the underground
  22. cold — an illness
  23. cold — not warm
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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