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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 124 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. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  2. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  3. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  4. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  7. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  8. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. He is an ace ________________.
  14. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  17. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  18. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  21. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  24. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — for baseball
  2. bat — in an idiom
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. hide — to keep secret
  5. cold — not warm
  6. hide — to keep secret
  7. dip — a sauce
  8. dip — to dunk
  9. clip — for paper
  10. wax — in the ear
  11. bat — the animal
  12. clip — to cut
  13. pitcher — in baseball
  14. wax — for sculpting
  15. clip — a video
  16. pitcher — a jug
  17. hide — animal skin
  18. fall — the season
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. fall — to drop
  21. fall — to drop
  22. cold — an illness
  23. wax — to grow
  24. dip — to sink

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