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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 ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  4. He is an ace ________________.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. False peace will not ________________.
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  14. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  15. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  16. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  17. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. kid — child
  3. kick — in football
  4. pitcher — in baseball
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. last — to go on
  7. hand — help
  8. last — finally
  9. kid — to tease
  10. cold — not warm
  11. kick — with a leg
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. kick — a thrill
  14. pitcher — a jug
  15. capital — money
  16. last — final
  17. scale — size or range
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. scale — in music
  21. hand — in cards
  22. capital — a city
  23. cold — an illness
  24. scale — for weighing

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