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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. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  2. He works in a ________________ mill.
  3. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. She's very handy with a ________________.
  7. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  8. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  13. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  14. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  15. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  16. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  19. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  22. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  23. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. pit — a hole
  2. saw — the tool
  3. pit — a fruit stone
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. cold — an illness
  6. saw — the tool
  7. squash — the sport
  8. saw — past of 'see'
  9. cold — not warm
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. bat — the animal
  12. squash — to crush
  13. row — a quarrel
  14. trunk — of a tree
  15. row — to paddle
  16. squash — the vegetable
  17. kid — child
  18. trunk — of an elephant
  19. pit — in a race
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. trunk — of a car
  22. kid — to tease
  23. row — a line
  24. bat — for baseball

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