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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 water is too ________________.
  2. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  3. David sat on the ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. This piece is in a major ________________.
  8. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  9. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  10. My father caught me by the ________________.
  11. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  16. I'll be taking the ________________.
  17. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  18. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  21. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  24. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. arm — a part of something
  3. swing — to play on
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. cold — an illness
  6. land — a country
  7. key — in music
  8. key — for a lock
  9. swing — in golf
  10. arm — part of the body
  11. tube — a container
  12. kid — child
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. land — ground
  15. wind — moving air
  16. tube — the underground
  17. kid — to tease
  18. key — the most important part
  19. land — to come down
  20. arm — part of the body
  21. tube — in a tire
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. swing — music
  24. wind — moving air

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