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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: plane · cap · roll · kid · key · last · cold · chest

  1. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  2. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  3. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  4. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  5. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  6. We're on a ________________ here.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  9. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  10. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. This piece is in a major ________________.
  16. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  17. The ________________ took off on time.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  21. False peace will not ________________.
  22. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  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. key — for a lock
  2. cap — a hat
  3. last — finally
  4. cap — of ice
  5. key — the most important part
  6. roll — on a roll
  7. chest — of your body
  8. last — final
  9. plane — a tool
  10. roll — a cake
  11. chest — of your body
  12. cap — a lid
  13. cold — not warm
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. key — in music
  16. plane — in geometry
  17. plane — an aircraft
  18. chest — a box
  19. kid — child
  20. roll — a list
  21. last — to go on
  22. kid — to tease
  23. cold — an illness
  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