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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. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  2. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  11. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  12. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  13. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The ________________ took off on time.
  22. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  23. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. lean — to bend
  2. current — electric
  3. kid — to tease
  4. plane — in geometry
  5. kid — child
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. cold — not warm
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. lean — thin
  11. current — of water
  12. current — happening now
  13. plane — a tool
  14. tear — from crying
  15. tear — to rip
  16. squash — the sport
  17. cold — an illness
  18. lean — to rest against
  19. tear — from crying
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. plane — an aircraft
  22. squash — the vegetable
  23. squash — to crush
  24. bat — the animal

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