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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. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  2. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  3. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  4. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  19. He is an ace ________________.
  20. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  21. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  22. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  23. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. racket — a loud noise
  3. pit — a fruit stone
  4. pit — a hole
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. tear — to rip
  7. hand — in cards
  8. cold — an illness
  9. racket — for tennis
  10. kid — child
  11. tear — from crying
  12. tear — from crying
  13. pitcher — a jug
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. racket — for tennis
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. hand — help
  18. lash — to lash out
  19. pitcher — in baseball
  20. kid — to tease
  21. lash — a whip stroke
  22. lash — an eyelash
  23. pit — in a race
  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