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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: row · cap · bat · swing · wake · cell · tube · cold

  1. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  2. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  3. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  4. David sat on the ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  7. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  8. He was locked up in a ________________.
  9. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  10. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. I'll be taking the ________________.
  13. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  18. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  24. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — to stop sleeping
  2. cap — of ice
  3. cap — a lid
  4. swing — to play on
  5. cold — not warm
  6. swing — in golf
  7. row — a quarrel
  8. cell — in a prison
  9. row — to paddle
  10. wake — before a funeral
  11. cold — an illness
  12. tube — the underground
  13. cap — a hat
  14. cell — in biology
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. tube — in a tire
  18. tube — a container
  19. row — a line
  20. bat — the animal
  21. swing — music
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. cell — a phone
  24. wake — a trail

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