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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: cold · ground · bass · kid · fall · chest · net · wound

  1. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  2. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. There's no middle ________________.
  11. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  12. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  13. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  16. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  17. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  18. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  19. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  22. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. Add some ________________ pepper to it.

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

Answer key

  1. net — in sport
  2. ground — the earth
  3. chest — of your body
  4. fall — the season
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. bass — low music
  8. cold — not warm
  9. cold — an illness
  10. ground — a position
  11. bass — the fish
  12. wound — an injury
  13. net — after costs
  14. kid — to tease
  15. wound — past of 'wind'
  16. fall — to drop
  17. bass — the instrument
  18. chest — of your body
  19. wound — an injury
  20. chest — a box
  21. net — for catching
  22. fall — to drop
  23. kid — child
  24. ground — crushed

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