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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  3. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  4. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  5. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  6. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  15. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  23. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. rule — to rule out
  4. can — to be able to
  5. fan — to cool the air
  6. fan — a supporter
  7. chest — of your body
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. chest — of your body
  10. bat — the animal
  11. object — an aim
  12. chest — a box
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. can — a tin
  15. can — a tin
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. game — a match
  18. rule — a law
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. object — a thing
  21. cold — not warm
  22. object — to protest
  23. rule — government
  24. game — wild animals

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