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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 had a ________________ with my boss today.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  4. There's no middle ________________.
  5. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  6. The King held a masked ________________.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  11. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  12. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  13. I'll be taking the ________________.
  14. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  15. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  20. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. cold — an illness
  3. ground — crushed
  4. ground — a position
  5. cap — a hat
  6. ball — a dance
  7. kid — child
  8. row — a line
  9. kid — to tease
  10. ball — a great time
  11. branch — a division
  12. branch — of a tree
  13. tube — the underground
  14. tube — a container
  15. cap — a lid
  16. row — to paddle
  17. cap — of ice
  18. cold — not warm
  19. tube — in a tire
  20. ball — a round shape
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. branch — of a bank
  24. ground — the earth

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