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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. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  2. We're on a ________________ here.
  3. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  9. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The tickets are free of ________________.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  17. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  20. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  21. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  22. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  23. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  24. Biology is a ________________ of science.

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

Answer key

  1. roll — a cake
  2. roll — on a roll
  3. squash — the sport
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. kid — to tease
  7. kid — child
  8. squash — to crush
  9. charge — electricity
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. hand — part of the body
  12. cold — an illness
  13. charge — a price
  14. hand — in cards
  15. cold — not warm
  16. roll — a list
  17. squash — the vegetable
  18. hand — help
  19. mine — belonging to me
  20. branch — of a bank
  21. mine — for digging
  22. branch — of a tree
  23. charge — in control
  24. branch — a division

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