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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 girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  10. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  11. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  18. He was locked up in a ________________.
  19. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  20. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. That was a fun ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. hand — help
  3. chest — a box
  4. fan — to cool the air
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. cell — a phone
  7. hand — in cards
  8. kid — child
  9. cell — in biology
  10. fan — a supporter
  11. fan — a supporter
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. chest — of your body
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. lean — to rest against
  16. game — wild animals
  17. row — a quarrel
  18. cell — in a prison
  19. lean — to bend
  20. kid — to tease
  21. row — to paddle
  22. lean — thin
  23. chest — of your body
  24. game — a match

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