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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: nail · bowl · sharp · jam · straw · hand · cold · bat

  1. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  2. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  7. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  8. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  9. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. The ________________ went through the wall.
  14. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. It's one o'clock ________________.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  22. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  23. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  24. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — clever
  2. sharp — with an edge
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. cold — an illness
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. bowl — a dish
  7. jam — to spread on bread
  8. bowl — a football final
  9. hand — part of the body
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. bat — the animal
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. nail — for a hammer
  14. bowl — to roll
  15. cold — not warm
  16. hand — help
  17. sharp — exactly
  18. hand — in cards
  19. straw — dry grass
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. jam — in traffic
  22. jam — a tight spot
  23. nail — for a hammer
  24. nail — on a finger

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