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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. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  2. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  3. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. We're almost out of ________________.
  8. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  9. She's very handy with a ________________.
  10. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. You don't need to ________________ round.
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  19. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  20. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  21. He works in a ________________ mill.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — in cards
  2. row — to paddle
  3. prune — the fruit
  4. game — a match
  5. chest — of your body
  6. cold — not warm
  7. pop — soda
  8. row — a quarrel
  9. saw — the tool
  10. pop — music
  11. cold — an illness
  12. row — a line
  13. prune — to trim
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. hand — help
  16. pop — to visit
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. game — wild animals
  19. saw — past of 'see'
  20. chest — of your body
  21. saw — the tool
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. prune — to trim
  24. chest — a box

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