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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 ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  3. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  6. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  7. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  8. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  9. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  13. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  14. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  15. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  16. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. pit — a hole
  3. file — a document
  4. spring — of water
  5. present — there
  6. patient — a sick person
  7. pit — in a race
  8. bass — the fish
  9. bass — the instrument
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. file — a tool
  12. present — the time now
  13. pit — a fruit stone
  14. patient — a sick person
  15. bass — low music
  16. present — a gift
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. spring — a coil
  19. spring — the season
  20. cold — an illness
  21. cold — not warm
  22. file — a line of people
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. patient — calm and waiting

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