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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. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  7. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  8. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  12. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  16. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  17. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  18. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  19. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  20. That was a fun ________________.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. We were using a ________________ as a seat.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. bat — the animal
  3. cold — an illness
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. rock — to move gently
  7. branch — of a bank
  8. branch — of a tree
  9. spring — a coil
  10. spring — of water
  11. game — wild animals
  12. game — a kind of play
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. spring — the season
  15. wind — moving air
  16. rock — music
  17. wind — moving air
  18. branch — a division
  19. wind — to turn a key
  20. game — a match
  21. cold — not warm
  22. kid — to tease
  23. kid — child
  24. rock — a stone

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