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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. He is an ace ________________.
  2. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  9. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  10. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  11. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  12. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  18. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  23. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — in baseball
  2. bear — the animal
  3. hand — in cards
  4. spring — a coil
  5. pitcher — a jug
  6. chest — of your body
  7. spring — the season
  8. bear — the animal
  9. root — the cause
  10. bear — to put up with
  11. spring — of water
  12. kid — to tease
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. kid — child
  15. pitcher — a jug
  16. hand — help
  17. root — of a plant
  18. chest — of your body
  19. bat — the animal
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. root — of a word
  23. chest — a box
  24. bat — in an idiom

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