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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: chest · cabinet · fall · kid · cold · kick · cell · bat

  1. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  3. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. What do you think of the new ________________?
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  10. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  11. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  12. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  13. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  19. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  22. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. kick — a thrill
  3. cell — a phone
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. cabinet — ministers
  8. kid — to tease
  9. fall — to drop
  10. cell — in biology
  11. fall — to drop
  12. kick — in football
  13. kick — with a leg
  14. bat — the animal
  15. cabinet — ministers
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. chest — a box
  18. fall — the season
  19. chest — of your body
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. cabinet — a cupboard
  22. chest — of your body
  23. cold — an illness
  24. cold — not warm

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