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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. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  5. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  9. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  12. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. What do you think of the new ________________?
  17. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  18. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to snap out of it
  2. cold — an illness
  3. hand — help
  4. dip — to dunk
  5. cabinet — ministers
  6. bat — the animal
  7. hand — in cards
  8. game — wild animals
  9. dip — to sink
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. patient — a sick person
  12. hand — part of the body
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. patient — a sick person
  15. game — a match
  16. cabinet — ministers
  17. snap — to click
  18. cabinet — a cupboard
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. patient — calm and waiting
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. dip — a sauce
  24. cold — not warm

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