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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. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  2. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  5. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  8. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  12. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  13. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  20. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. rock — music
  3. kid — to tease
  4. dip — to dunk
  5. rock — to move gently
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. squash — the vegetable
  8. rock — a stone
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. squash — to crush
  12. dip — a sauce
  13. squash — the sport
  14. file — a line of people
  15. bat — the animal
  16. file — a document
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. kid — child
  19. wind — moving air
  20. wind — moving air
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. wound — an injury
  23. dip — to sink
  24. file — a tool

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