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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  4. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  5. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  6. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  7. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  8. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  9. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  13. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  14. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  15. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. We're on a ________________ here.
  18. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  19. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. cold — an illness
  3. wound — past of 'wind'
  4. jam — in traffic
  5. lean — to bend
  6. bass — the instrument
  7. bass — the fish
  8. row — to paddle
  9. lean — thin
  10. wound — an injury
  11. chest — of your body
  12. jam — a tight spot
  13. lean — to rest against
  14. roll — a cake
  15. bass — low music
  16. chest — a box
  17. roll — on a roll
  18. jam — to spread on bread
  19. roll — a list
  20. chest — of your body
  21. row — a line
  22. wound — an injury
  23. row — a quarrel
  24. cold — the Cold War

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