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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. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. We're almost out of ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. You don't need to ________________ round.
  6. My father caught me by the ________________.
  7. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  11. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. She's very handy with a ________________.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. He works in a ________________ mill.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  22. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  23. False peace will not ________________.
  24. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.

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

Answer key

  1. arm — part of the body
  2. cold — not warm
  3. pop — soda
  4. cold — an illness
  5. pop — to visit
  6. arm — part of the body
  7. pop — music
  8. shower — rain
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. capital — money
  11. arm — a part of something
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. hand — in cards
  14. shower — to wash
  15. saw — the tool
  16. hand — help
  17. last — finally
  18. capital — a city
  19. saw — the tool
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. hand — part of the body
  22. last — final
  23. last — to go on
  24. saw — past of 'see'

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