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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 120 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. He was locked up in a ________________.
  3. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  4. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  5. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  6. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  7. My father caught me by the ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  12. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  15. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  16. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  17. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  18. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  19. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  20. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  21. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  22. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  23. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  24. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. cell — in a prison
  3. arm — a part of something
  4. drill — army training
  5. mark — to pay attention
  6. snap — to click
  7. arm — part of the body
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. bat — the animal
  11. drill — the tool
  12. drill — a practice
  13. cold — an illness
  14. arm — part of the body
  15. patient — calm and waiting
  16. cell — a phone
  17. cell — in biology
  18. mark — a trace
  19. snap — to snap out of it
  20. snap — to speak sharply
  21. patient — a sick person
  22. bat — in an idiom
  23. mark — a grade
  24. patient — a sick person

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