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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: bowl · dip · band · mine · kid · swing · bat · chest

  1. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  3. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. David sat on the ________________.
  12. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  13. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  14. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  15. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  21. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  22. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  23. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  24. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. mine — belonging to me
  3. bowl — to roll
  4. kid — to tease
  5. chest — of your body
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. chest — a box
  8. chest — of your body
  9. band — a rubber band
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. swing — to play on
  12. dip — a sauce
  13. bowl — a football final
  14. swing — in golf
  15. band — a music group
  16. bat — the animal
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. dip — to sink
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. dip — to dunk
  21. band — a ring
  22. mine — for digging
  23. bowl — a dish
  24. swing — music

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