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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. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  2. Did you ________________ the meat?
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  5. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  6. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. I'll be taking the ________________.
  9. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  10. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  11. David sat on the ________________.
  12. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  13. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  18. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  23. The King held a masked ________________.
  24. The kitten curled into a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. season — of the year
  2. season — to add flavour
  3. cold — not warm
  4. hide — to keep secret
  5. ball — a great time
  6. chest — a box
  7. cold — an illness
  8. tube — the underground
  9. hand — help
  10. hide — to keep secret
  11. swing — to play on
  12. swing — in golf
  13. hide — animal skin
  14. hand — in cards
  15. season — in sport
  16. chest — of your body
  17. swing — music
  18. tube — in a tire
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. tube — a container
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. chest — of your body
  23. ball — a dance
  24. ball — a round shape

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