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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: cold · file · chest · pitcher · snap · game · cap · chip

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  4. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  5. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  10. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  11. He is an ace ________________.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  14. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  17. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  21. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  22. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  23. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  24. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. file — a tool
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. cap — a hat
  5. chip — for betting
  6. chest — of your body
  7. snap — to click
  8. game — a match
  9. snap — to snap out of it
  10. cap — of ice
  11. pitcher — in baseball
  12. chest — a box
  13. chip — to eat
  14. chip — in a computer
  15. file — a document
  16. game — a kind of play
  17. pitcher — a jug
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. cold — not warm
  20. file — a line of people
  21. chest — of your body
  22. game — wild animals
  23. snap — to speak sharply
  24. cap — a lid

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