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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. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  3. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  4. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  5. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  6. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  7. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. It's one o'clock ________________.
  12. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  13. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  14. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  15. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  16. The King held a masked ________________.
  17. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  18. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  19. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  23. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  24. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. hide — to keep secret
  3. hide — to keep secret
  4. row — a quarrel
  5. bark — to shout
  6. present — a gift
  7. hide — animal skin
  8. cold — not warm
  9. row — to paddle
  10. cold — an illness
  11. sharp — exactly
  12. bark — a dog's sound
  13. present — the time now
  14. ball — a round shape
  15. present — there
  16. ball — a dance
  17. bark — of a tree
  18. ball — a great time
  19. sharp — with an edge
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. bat — in an idiom
  23. sharp — clever
  24. row — a line

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