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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: bass · kid · fine · cold · chest · wound

  1. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  3. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  6. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  7. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  11. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  12. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  18. I play ________________ in a jazz band.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. bass — low music
  3. fine — all right
  4. kid — to tease
  5. chest — of your body
  6. fine — high quality
  7. wound — past of 'wind'
  8. cold — an illness
  9. chest — of your body
  10. wound — an injury
  11. fine — a penalty
  12. bass — the fish
  13. cold — not warm
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. kid — child
  16. chest — a box
  17. wound — an injury
  18. bass — the instrument

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