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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 · snap · pitcher · fork · bulb · band · cold · bat

  1. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  2. He is an ace ________________.
  3. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  4. The light ________________ burned out.
  5. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  6. I've got to change the light ________________.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  12. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  13. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  14. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  17. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  18. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  19. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  20. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. bulb — of a plant
  2. pitcher — in baseball
  3. snap — to snap out of it
  4. bulb — for light
  5. snap — to speak sharply
  6. bulb — for light
  7. chest — of your body
  8. cold — not warm
  9. pitcher — a jug
  10. cold — an illness
  11. pitcher — a jug
  12. band — a rubber band
  13. snap — to click
  14. chest — a box
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. fork — a garden tool
  17. band — a ring
  18. chest — of your body
  19. band — a music group
  20. fork — in a road
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. fork — to eat with
  23. bat — the animal
  24. cold — the Cold War

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