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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: kid · last · stem · mug · cold · wound · chest · ball

  1. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  2. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  5. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  6. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  7. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  8. Where did you ________________ them?
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. The King held a masked ________________.
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  16. False peace will not ________________.
  17. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  20. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  21. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — finally
  2. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  3. cold — an illness
  4. ball — a great time
  5. ball — a round shape
  6. mug — a face
  7. last — final
  8. mug — to rob
  9. chest — of your body
  10. wound — past of 'wind'
  11. kid — child
  12. ball — a dance
  13. chest — of your body
  14. cold — not warm
  15. stem — to come from
  16. last — to go on
  17. stem — a stem cell
  18. chest — a box
  19. mug — a cup
  20. kid — to tease
  21. wound — an injury
  22. wound — an injury
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. stem — of a plant

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