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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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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: chair · fine · cold · bore · squash · hand · wind · present

  1. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  2. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  8. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  9. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  10. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  11. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  14. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  15. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  19. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  24. Do you need a ________________ with that?

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

Answer key

  1. fine — all right
  2. fine — high quality
  3. cold — not warm
  4. wind — moving air
  5. chair — a leader
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. bore — gave birth
  8. chair — a professorship
  9. present — the time now
  10. squash — the sport
  11. present — there
  12. cold — an illness
  13. squash — to crush
  14. bore — to tire
  15. present — a gift
  16. hand — in cards
  17. wind — moving air
  18. chair — to sit on
  19. bore — to drill
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. squash — the vegetable
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. fine — a penalty
  24. hand — help

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