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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: face · hand · bat · pitch · kid · tube · cold · arm

  1. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  6. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  13. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. I'll be taking the ________________.
  18. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  19. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  20. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  23. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  24. My father caught me by the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — in an idiom
  2. kid — child
  3. tube — in a tire
  4. bat — the animal
  5. face — to confront
  6. arm — a part of something
  7. cold — not warm
  8. hand — in cards
  9. cold — an illness
  10. pitch — completely
  11. kid — to tease
  12. pitch — a sports field
  13. hand — help
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. tube — a container
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. tube — the underground
  18. face — part of the head
  19. face — to point toward
  20. arm — part of the body
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. pitch — a sales talk
  23. hand — part of the body
  24. arm — part of the body

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