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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  3. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  4. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  7. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  8. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  14. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  15. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  22. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  23. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. chest — a box
  3. squash — the sport
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. shower — to wash
  6. fan — to cool the air
  7. fall — the season
  8. club — for dancing
  9. kid — to tease
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. fall — to drop
  12. cold — not warm
  13. squash — to crush
  14. chest — of your body
  15. fall — to drop
  16. chest — of your body
  17. club — a group
  18. shower — rain
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. kid — child
  21. club — for golf
  22. fan — a supporter
  23. squash — the vegetable
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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