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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. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. That was a fun ________________.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. Have you met the new head ________________?
  8. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  9. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  10. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  11. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  12. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  16. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  17. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  18. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. What do you think of the new ________________?
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. hand — help
  3. game — a match
  4. hand — in cards
  5. chest — a box
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. coach — a trainer
  8. coach — a trainer
  9. cabinet — a cupboard
  10. chest — of your body
  11. coach — pulled by horses
  12. fall — to drop
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. wind — moving air
  16. wind — moving air
  17. fall — to drop
  18. cabinet — ministers
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. cabinet — ministers
  21. chest — of your body
  22. bat — in an idiom
  23. bat — the animal
  24. fall — the season

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