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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: bat · lie · club · coach · wind · cold · tube · wave

  1. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  2. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  3. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  4. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  5. I'll be taking the ________________.
  6. Have you met the new head ________________?
  7. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  8. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  9. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  19. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  22. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — pulled by horses
  2. tube — a container
  3. club — for golf
  4. club — for dancing
  5. tube — the underground
  6. coach — a trainer
  7. lie — to recline
  8. tube — in a tire
  9. wave — with your hand
  10. wind — moving air
  11. cold — not warm
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. bat — the animal
  14. wind — to turn a key
  15. wind — moving air
  16. lie — an untruth
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. lie — an untruth
  19. coach — a trainer
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. club — a group
  22. wave — of the sea
  23. cold — an illness
  24. wave — a sudden rise

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