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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: cold · cell · hand · ground · chair · wave · kid · pop

  1. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. He was locked up in a ________________.
  4. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  8. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  9. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  10. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  11. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  12. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  13. There's no middle ________________.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  16. We're almost out of ________________.
  17. You don't need to ________________ round.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  21. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  2. kid — child
  3. cell — in a prison
  4. chair — a leader
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. cell — a phone
  7. pop — music
  8. chair — a professorship
  9. wave — a sudden rise
  10. ground — the earth
  11. chair — to sit on
  12. ground — crushed
  13. ground — a position
  14. hand — help
  15. wave — with your hand
  16. pop — soda
  17. pop — to visit
  18. hand — in cards
  19. kid — to tease
  20. cell — in biology
  21. wave — of the sea
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. cold — not warm
  24. cold — an illness

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