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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: file · board · cold · coach · hand · row · pitcher · spring

  1. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  2. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. He is an ace ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  10. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  11. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  12. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  24. Have you met the new head ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. board — a committee
  3. hand — in cards
  4. cold — not warm
  5. hand — part of the body
  6. spring — a coil
  7. pitcher — in baseball
  8. cold — an illness
  9. board — a flat piece
  10. row — a line
  11. coach — pulled by horses
  12. row — a quarrel
  13. row — to paddle
  14. spring — of water
  15. file — a document
  16. board — to get on
  17. hand — help
  18. file — a line of people
  19. coach — a trainer
  20. file — a tool
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. spring — the season
  23. pitcher — a jug
  24. coach — a trainer

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