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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 chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  4. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  5. We're almost out of ________________.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  15. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  20. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  21. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  22. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. You don't need to ________________ round.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. wind — moving air
  3. kick — with a leg
  4. net — for catching
  5. pop — soda
  6. kid — to tease
  7. wind — to turn a key
  8. cold — an illness
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. chip — for betting
  11. wind — moving air
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. cold — not warm
  14. kick — in football
  15. chip — to eat
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. pop — music
  18. mine — for digging
  19. kick — a thrill
  20. chip — in a computer
  21. net — after costs
  22. net — in sport
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. pop — to visit

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