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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. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  7. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  15. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  16. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  17. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.

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

Answer key

  1. rock — music
  2. kid — to tease
  3. patient — calm and waiting
  4. cold — an illness
  5. race — a contest
  6. snap — to click
  7. rock — a stone
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. cold — not warm
  10. bat — the animal
  11. snap — to speak sharply
  12. kid — child
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. patient — a sick person
  15. race — the arms race
  16. tear — from crying
  17. patient — a sick person
  18. race — humankind
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. rock — to move gently
  21. tear — to rip
  22. snap — to snap out of it
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. tear — from crying

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