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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 had a ________________ with my boss today.
  2. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  3. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  4. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  5. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  6. She's very handy with a ________________.
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  10. That must've been a ________________.
  11. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  12. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  13. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  14. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  15. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  16. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. He was locked up in a ________________.
  19. That was a fun ________________.
  20. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  21. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  22. He works in a ________________ mill.
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  24. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. wound — past of 'wind'
  3. wound — an injury
  4. row — to paddle
  5. dip — to dunk
  6. saw — the tool
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. hand — help
  9. rush — to hurry
  10. rush — a thrill
  11. cell — a phone
  12. hand — in cards
  13. row — a line
  14. dip — a sauce
  15. rush — hurry
  16. wound — an injury
  17. game — wild animals
  18. cell — in a prison
  19. game — a match
  20. dip — to sink
  21. game — a kind of play
  22. saw — the tool
  23. cell — in biology
  24. saw — past of 'see'

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