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

Word bank: cold · bat · stick · swing · wind · rule

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  6. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  7. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  8. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  11. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. David sat on the ________________.
  15. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  16. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. cold — an illness
  3. wind — moving air
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. swing — in golf
  6. swing — music
  7. stick — to attach or keep to
  8. rule — to rule out
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. stick — a piece of wood
  11. wind — moving air
  12. bat — the animal
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. swing — to play on
  15. rule — a law
  16. rule — government
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. stick — a piece of wood

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