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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 ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  2. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  3. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  4. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  5. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  9. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  10. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  14. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  15. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  21. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. dip — a sauce
  2. dip — to dunk
  3. tear — from crying
  4. bass — the fish
  5. pass — to succeed
  6. land — a country
  7. bat — the animal
  8. pass — a permit
  9. bass — the instrument
  10. tear — from crying
  11. cold — an illness
  12. cold — not warm
  13. squash — the sport
  14. squash — to crush
  15. pass — to spend time
  16. tear — to rip
  17. land — to come down
  18. bass — low music
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. squash — the vegetable
  21. dip — to sink
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. land — ground

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