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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 ________________ with my boss today.
  2. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  3. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  4. The ball is in your ________________.
  5. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  6. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  12. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  13. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  14. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  15. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  16. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  17. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  22. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. court — of a king
  3. scale — for weighing
  4. court — for sport
  5. lie — an untruth
  6. row — to paddle
  7. chest — of your body
  8. fall — to drop
  9. chest — of your body
  10. wound — an injury
  11. wound — an injury
  12. fall — the season
  13. wound — past of 'wind'
  14. scale — size or range
  15. court — of law
  16. lie — to recline
  17. fall — to drop
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. lie — an untruth
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. row — a line
  22. scale — in music
  23. bat — the animal
  24. chest — a box

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