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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 120 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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  4. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  5. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  6. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  14. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  15. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  16. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  19. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  20. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  23. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. pit — a hole
  2. kid — to tease
  3. shower — a meteor shower
  4. mouse — the animal
  5. shower — rain
  6. stick — a piece of wood
  7. cold — not warm
  8. chair — a professorship
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. shower — to wash
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. chair — a leader
  13. stick — a piece of wood
  14. row — to paddle
  15. row — a line
  16. pit — a fruit stone
  17. cold — an illness
  18. mouse — for a computer
  19. pit — in a race
  20. stick — to attach or keep to
  21. kid — child
  22. chair — to sit on
  23. mouse — the animal
  24. cold — the Cold War

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