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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. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  2. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. My mare is ________________ in color.
  6. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  7. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  8. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  9. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  10. The ball is in your ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  13. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  14. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  15. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. Have you settled on a ________________?
  18. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  19. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  20. He was locked up in a ________________.
  21. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  22. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. date — the fruit
  2. cue — a signal
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. bat — the animal
  5. bay — a horse colour
  6. dip — to sink
  7. court — of a king
  8. cue — for pool
  9. bay — a part of the sea
  10. court — for sport
  11. cold — an illness
  12. dip — to dunk
  13. cue — a hint
  14. cell — a phone
  15. bay — to keep at bay
  16. cold — not warm
  17. date — on the calendar
  18. date — on the calendar
  19. dip — a sauce
  20. cell — in a prison
  21. court — of law
  22. bat — in an idiom
  23. cell — in biology
  24. cold — the Cold War

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