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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. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  4. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  7. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  12. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  13. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  14. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  15. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  18. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. row — a quarrel
  4. rock — a stone
  5. chest — a box
  6. row — to paddle
  7. drill — a practice
  8. row — a line
  9. chest — of your body
  10. cold — an illness
  11. rock — music
  12. wound — an injury
  13. cap — a hat
  14. rock — to move gently
  15. wound — an injury
  16. cold — not warm
  17. cap — of ice
  18. drill — army training
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. cap — a lid
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. drill — the tool
  23. bat — the animal
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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