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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: cold · fan · kid · season · row · bound · hand · deal

  1. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  2. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. That was ________________ to happen.
  5. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  11. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  12. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  16. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  17. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  18. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  19. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  20. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. Did you ________________ the meat?

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

Answer key

  1. bound — obliged
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. cold — an illness
  4. bound — certain
  5. deal — an agreement
  6. kid — child
  7. hand — in cards
  8. kid — to tease
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. row — a line
  11. row — to paddle
  12. deal — a big deal
  13. cold — not warm
  14. hand — help
  15. fan — a supporter
  16. season — of the year
  17. fan — to cool the air
  18. season — in sport
  19. deal — to handle
  20. bound — tied together
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. fan — a supporter
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. season — to add flavour

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