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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 water is too ________________.
  2. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  3. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  4. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  5. He is an ace ________________.
  6. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  9. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  16. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  17. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  20. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  21. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. mine — an explosive
  3. band — a music group
  4. rest — what's left
  5. pitcher — in baseball
  6. rest — a break
  7. kid — to tease
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. band — a ring
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. leaves — to go away
  12. chair — a leader
  13. pitcher — a jug
  14. cold — an illness
  15. leaves — of a tree
  16. chair — a professorship
  17. rest — what's left
  18. kid — child
  19. leaves — lets stay
  20. band — a rubber band
  21. chair — to sit on
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. mine — for digging

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