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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 116 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: kid · swing · coach · shower · deal · face · file · cold

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  3. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  4. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  5. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  6. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. David sat on the ________________.
  9. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  10. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  11. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  12. Have you met the new head ________________?
  13. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  17. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  22. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  23. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  24. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. face — to confront
  3. swing — music
  4. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  5. file — a document
  6. shower — a meteor shower
  7. file — a line of people
  8. swing — to play on
  9. face — part of the head
  10. deal — an agreement
  11. swing — in golf
  12. coach — a trainer
  13. face — to point toward
  14. cold — an illness
  15. kid — child
  16. shower — to wash
  17. deal — a big deal
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. cold — not warm
  20. file — a tool
  21. coach — a trainer
  22. shower — rain
  23. deal — to handle
  24. coach — pulled by horses

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