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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  10. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  11. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  12. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  13. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. stem — a stem cell
  3. cold — an illness
  4. file — a line of people
  5. mouse — the animal
  6. row — a line
  7. chip — in a computer
  8. bat — the animal
  9. mouse — the animal
  10. chip — for betting
  11. mouse — for a computer
  12. stem — to come from
  13. stem — of a plant
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. kid — to tease
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. file — a tool
  18. chip — to eat
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. file — a document
  21. row — to paddle
  22. row — a quarrel
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. kid — child

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