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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: arm · bat · degree · board · chest · row · safe · kid

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. Is it ________________ for us to be here?
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. My father caught me by the ________________.
  12. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  13. Tom was very happy that his son returned home ________________ and sound.
  14. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  23. He has no idea where the ________________ is.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. board — to get on
  3. degree — from a university
  4. bat — the animal
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. safe — out of danger
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. chest — of your body
  9. row — a line
  10. degree — temperature
  11. arm — part of the body
  12. arm — a part of something
  13. safe — out of danger
  14. board — a committee
  15. chest — a box
  16. arm — part of the body
  17. row — to paddle
  18. kid — child
  19. degree — an amount
  20. board — a flat piece
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. chest — of your body
  23. safe — a strongbox
  24. bat — in an idiom

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