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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. He is an ace ________________.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  10. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  11. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  23. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  24. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. pitcher — in baseball
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. bat — the animal
  7. hand — in cards
  8. capital — a city
  9. spring — the season
  10. leaves — of a tree
  11. tear — from crying
  12. spring — of water
  13. tear — to rip
  14. hand — help
  15. spring — a coil
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. leaves — lets stay
  18. capital — money
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. kid — child
  22. tear — from crying
  23. leaves — to go away
  24. pitcher — a jug

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