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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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Word bank
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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: club · bat · arm · bark · game · ball · cold · kick

  1. My father caught me by the ________________.
  2. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  5. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  6. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  7. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. The King held a masked ________________.
  10. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  14. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  15. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  16. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  17. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  20. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  21. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.

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

Answer key

  1. arm — part of the body
  2. bat — in an idiom
  3. cold — an illness
  4. kick — a thrill
  5. arm — a part of something
  6. arm — part of the body
  7. bark — a dog's sound
  8. game — a match
  9. ball — a dance
  10. bark — of a tree
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. cold — not warm
  13. game — wild animals
  14. kick — with a leg
  15. bark — to shout
  16. kick — in football
  17. ball — a round shape
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. club — for golf
  20. club — for dancing
  21. ball — a great time
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. bat — the animal
  24. club — a group

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