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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  5. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  6. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  9. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  12. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  13. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  14. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. It's one o'clock ________________.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  22. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  23. Have you met the new head ________________?
  24. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. coach — pulled by horses
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. sharp — with an edge
  5. coach — a trainer
  6. wax — to grow
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. pitch — completely
  9. pitch — a sales talk
  10. shower — rain
  11. sharp — clever
  12. wax — in the ear
  13. chip — for betting
  14. chip — to eat
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. sharp — exactly
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. cold — an illness
  19. chip — in a computer
  20. bat — the animal
  21. pitch — a sports field
  22. shower — to wash
  23. coach — a trainer
  24. wax — for sculpting

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