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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. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  2. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  3. You don't need to ________________ round.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  13. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  14. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  15. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. We're almost out of ________________.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. pop — music
  2. bat — in an idiom
  3. pop — to visit
  4. capital — money
  5. kid — to tease
  6. capital — a city
  7. tear — from crying
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. kid — child
  10. race — humankind
  11. file — a line of people
  12. row — a quarrel
  13. race — the arms race
  14. race — a contest
  15. bat — the animal
  16. tear — to rip
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. pop — soda
  19. tear — from crying
  20. file — a tool
  21. file — a document
  22. row — to paddle
  23. row — a line
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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