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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. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  4. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. We're on a ________________ here.
  7. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  8. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  9. My father caught me by the ________________.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  12. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  13. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  14. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  20. When was this ________________ built?
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  23. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  24. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — to cool the air
  2. cold — not warm
  3. fan — a supporter
  4. lash — to lash out
  5. hand — help
  6. roll — on a roll
  7. temple — a place of worship
  8. lash — an eyelash
  9. arm — part of the body
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. fan — a supporter
  12. roll — a cake
  13. roll — a list
  14. lash — a whip stroke
  15. mine — for digging
  16. hand — in cards
  17. arm — part of the body
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. arm — a part of something
  20. temple — a place of worship
  21. cold — an illness
  22. mine — belonging to me
  23. temple — side of the head
  24. mine — an explosive

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