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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. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  2. He is an ace ________________.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  5. What do you think of the new ________________?
  6. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  16. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  17. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  19. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  20. The ball is in your ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — for baseball
  2. pitcher — in baseball
  3. kid — to tease
  4. pitcher — a jug
  5. cabinet — ministers
  6. court — of law
  7. chest — a box
  8. staff — a stick
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. bat — the animal
  12. cabinet — a cupboard
  13. cold — an illness
  14. cold — not warm
  15. staff — employees
  16. pitcher — a jug
  17. chest — of your body
  18. court — of a king
  19. cabinet — ministers
  20. court — for sport
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. kid — child
  23. chest — of your body
  24. staff — employees

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