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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. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  2. The King held a masked ________________.
  3. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  10. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  11. The ________________ took off on time.
  12. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  19. Don't do anything ________________.
  20. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  21. That was ________________ to happen.
  22. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  2. ball — a dance
  3. ball — a great time
  4. spring — the season
  5. file — a line of people
  6. chest — of your body
  7. spring — of water
  8. kid — to tease
  9. ball — a round shape
  10. rash — a series
  11. plane — an aircraft
  12. plane — a tool
  13. kid — child
  14. bound — tied together
  15. chest — a box
  16. spring — a coil
  17. chest — of your body
  18. plane — in geometry
  19. rash — hasty
  20. rash — on the skin
  21. bound — certain
  22. bound — obliged
  23. file — a tool
  24. file — a document

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