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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 116 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 get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  2. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  3. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  10. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  11. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  12. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  16. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  23. He is an ace ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. kick — a thrill
  2. cue — a signal
  3. kick — with a leg
  4. game — wild animals
  5. cap — a hat
  6. game — a match
  7. cap — a lid
  8. cold — not warm
  9. cue — a hint
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. kick — in football
  12. cap — of ice
  13. spring — the season
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. cue — for pool
  16. pitcher — a jug
  17. spring — a coil
  18. prune — to trim
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. spring — of water
  21. cold — an illness
  22. prune — to trim
  23. pitcher — in baseball
  24. cold — the Cold War

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