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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 water is too ________________.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  16. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  17. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  18. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  23. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. chest — of your body
  3. bass — low music
  4. chest — of your body
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. wax — in the ear
  7. chest — a box
  8. racket — for tennis
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. wax — to grow
  11. kid — child
  12. bat — the animal
  13. wax — for sculpting
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. bass — the fish
  16. mine — an explosive
  17. bass — the instrument
  18. racket — for tennis
  19. kid — to tease
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. mine — for digging
  23. racket — a loud noise
  24. cold — an illness

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