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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: jam · mine · chair · bore · hide · wind · cold · tube

  1. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  2. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  3. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  7. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  10. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  11. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  12. I'll be taking the ________________.
  13. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  18. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  19. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  23. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. hide — to keep secret
  2. chair — a professorship
  3. hide — to keep secret
  4. wind — moving air
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. hide — animal skin
  7. bore — gave birth
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. jam — a tight spot
  10. tube — a container
  11. chair — a leader
  12. tube — the underground
  13. bore — to drill
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. mine — for digging
  16. cold — not warm
  17. tube — in a tire
  18. jam — in traffic
  19. jam — to spread on bread
  20. cold — an illness
  21. wind — moving air
  22. chair — to sit on
  23. bore — to tire
  24. cold — the Cold War

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