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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. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  2. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  10. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  13. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  14. He was locked up in a ________________.
  15. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  20. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  23. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  24. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!

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

Answer key

  1. dip — to dunk
  2. wax — for sculpting
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. fall — to drop
  5. bat — the animal
  6. dip — to sink
  7. cold — not warm
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. dip — a sauce
  10. fall — to drop
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. cell — in biology
  13. wax — in the ear
  14. cell — in a prison
  15. bore — to drill
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. wax — to grow
  18. cold — an illness
  19. shower — to wash
  20. fall — the season
  21. shower — rain
  22. bore — gave birth
  23. bore — to tire
  24. cell — a phone

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