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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. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  2. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  3. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  11. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  12. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  13. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  24. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.

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

Answer key

  1. craft — boats
  2. squash — the vegetable
  3. squash — the sport
  4. cold — not warm
  5. pitch — a sales talk
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. kid — to tease
  8. kid — child
  9. file — a document
  10. pit — in a race
  11. chest — of your body
  12. pit — a fruit stone
  13. pitch — completely
  14. file — a tool
  15. craft — a skill
  16. chest — a box
  17. pitch — a sports field
  18. cold — an illness
  19. chest — of your body
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. craft — a handicraft
  22. file — a line of people
  23. pit — a hole
  24. squash — to crush

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