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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.

Words on the sheet
468
Word bank
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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: chest · cold · pitch · hand · bulb · plane · shower · row

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. The light ________________ burned out.
  4. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  7. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. The ________________ took off on time.
  13. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  14. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  18. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  19. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  20. I've got to change the light ________________.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  23. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. bulb — for light
  4. shower — rain
  5. chest — a box
  6. bulb — of a plant
  7. row — a quarrel
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. chest — of your body
  10. shower — to wash
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. plane — an aircraft
  13. pitch — a sports field
  14. plane — a tool
  15. hand — help
  16. cold — an illness
  17. chest — of your body
  18. plane — in geometry
  19. pitch — a sales talk
  20. bulb — for light
  21. row — to paddle
  22. row — a line
  23. pitch — completely
  24. hand — in cards

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