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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. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  8. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  9. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  12. Have you found your soul ________________?
  13. What do you think of the new ________________?
  14. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  15. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  19. False peace will not ________________.
  20. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  21. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. file — a tool
  2. hand — help
  3. kid — child
  4. cold — not warm
  5. patient — a sick person
  6. kid — to tease
  7. patient — calm and waiting
  8. mate — a friend
  9. cabinet — ministers
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. cabinet — a cupboard
  12. mate — a partner
  13. cabinet — ministers
  14. last — finally
  15. patient — a sick person
  16. cold — an illness
  17. hand — in cards
  18. last — final
  19. last — to go on
  20. file — a line of people
  21. mate — to breed
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. file — a document
  24. hand — part of the body

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