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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: bore · hand · cold · spring · swing · chair · stick · wind

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  4. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  5. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  8. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  9. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  10. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  11. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  12. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  13. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  14. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  15. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  16. David sat on the ________________.
  17. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  18. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  19. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  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. cold — an illness
  2. spring — of water
  3. bore — to drill
  4. stick — a piece of wood
  5. bore — gave birth
  6. cold — not warm
  7. chair — to sit on
  8. hand — part of the body
  9. hand — help
  10. wind — to turn a key
  11. bore — to tire
  12. stick — a piece of wood
  13. chair — a leader
  14. spring — a coil
  15. swing — in golf
  16. swing — to play on
  17. wind — moving air
  18. stick — to attach or keep to
  19. chair — a professorship
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. hand — in cards
  22. spring — the season
  23. wind — moving air
  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