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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: club · sharp · cold · bat · hide · craft · march · chest

  1. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  2. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  3. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  4. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  5. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  6. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  13. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  14. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  17. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. It's one o'clock ________________.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — clever
  2. sharp — with an edge
  3. craft — a handicraft
  4. craft — a skill
  5. hide — to keep secret
  6. hide — to keep secret
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. club — for golf
  11. bat — the animal
  12. craft — boats
  13. club — a group
  14. club — for dancing
  15. chest — of your body
  16. march — the month
  17. march — music
  18. chest — a box
  19. cold — not warm
  20. sharp — exactly
  21. march — the month
  22. cold — an illness
  23. chest — of your body
  24. hide — animal skin

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