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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: mine · ground · squash · kid · last · bat · row · cold

  1. False peace will not ________________.
  2. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  5. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  6. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. There's no middle ________________.
  14. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  15. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. last — to go on
  2. row — to paddle
  3. cold — not warm
  4. mine — an explosive
  5. last — final
  6. squash — to crush
  7. cold — an illness
  8. ground — the earth
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. ground — crushed
  11. kid — child
  12. row — a line
  13. ground — a position
  14. squash — the sport
  15. squash — the vegetable
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. row — a quarrel
  18. kid — to tease
  19. last — finally
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. mine — for digging
  23. bat — the animal
  24. bat — in an idiom

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