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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 · swing · drill · dip · file · bat · snap · calf

  1. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  2. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  5. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  6. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  10. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  11. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  16. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  17. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  18. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  21. David sat on the ________________.
  22. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. dip — to dunk
  2. snap — to speak sharply
  3. cold — not warm
  4. swing — music
  5. drill — a practice
  6. snap — to click
  7. file — a line of people
  8. bat — the animal
  9. calf — a young animal
  10. calf — a young animal
  11. calf — of the leg
  12. cold — an illness
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. file — a tool
  15. snap — to snap out of it
  16. drill — army training
  17. drill — the tool
  18. dip — a sauce
  19. file — a document
  20. swing — in golf
  21. swing — to play on
  22. dip — to sink
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. bat — in an idiom

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