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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 ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  4. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  9. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  10. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. He was locked up in a ________________.
  13. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  17. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  18. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  19. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  20. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  23. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  24. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. wound — an injury
  3. row — to paddle
  4. march — the month
  5. file — a tool
  6. kick — a thrill
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. net — in sport
  9. kick — with a leg
  10. cell — in biology
  11. file — a document
  12. cell — in a prison
  13. march — the month
  14. wound — an injury
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. row — a line
  17. net — after costs
  18. row — a quarrel
  19. cell — a phone
  20. march — music
  21. file — a line of people
  22. wound — past of 'wind'
  23. net — for catching
  24. kick — in football

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