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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 120 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 · bark · pitch · kid · bat · stick · bore · wind

  1. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  4. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  5. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  6. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  13. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  18. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  19. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  20. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  21. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  22. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. bore — to tire
  2. chest — of your body
  3. kid — child
  4. bore — to drill
  5. bore — gave birth
  6. bark — to shout
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. pitch — a sales talk
  9. kid — to tease
  10. bark — a dog's sound
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. chest — of your body
  13. bark — of a tree
  14. bat — the animal
  15. wind — moving air
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. wind — to turn a key
  18. pitch — a sports field
  19. stick — to attach or keep to
  20. stick — a piece of wood
  21. stick — a piece of wood
  22. pitch — completely
  23. wind — moving air
  24. chest — a box

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