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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 · hand · wake · bat · row · temple · snap · pit

  1. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. When was this ________________ built?
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  5. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  8. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  9. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  10. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  14. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  17. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  18. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  24. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to snap out of it
  2. temple — a place of worship
  3. hand — help
  4. wake — to stop sleeping
  5. snap — to click
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. temple — a place of worship
  8. pit — a fruit stone
  9. row — to paddle
  10. hand — in cards
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. cold — an illness
  13. pit — a hole
  14. temple — side of the head
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. row — a line
  17. pit — in a race
  18. row — a quarrel
  19. cold — not warm
  20. snap — to speak sharply
  21. bat — the animal
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. wake — a trail
  24. wake — before a funeral

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