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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. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  2. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  3. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  11. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  12. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  13. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  18. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  19. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  20. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  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. wave — with your hand
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. court — of law
  4. file — a document
  5. court — for sport
  6. dip — to dunk
  7. cold — not warm
  8. bat — the animal
  9. file — a tool
  10. fan — to cool the air
  11. dip — a sauce
  12. court — of a king
  13. wave — of the sea
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. wave — a sudden rise
  16. cold — an illness
  17. band — a rubber band
  18. fan — a supporter
  19. band — a music group
  20. dip — to sink
  21. file — a line of people
  22. band — a ring
  23. bat — for baseball
  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