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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 116 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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  2. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. That must've been a ________________.
  15. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  16. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — a straw man
  2. rush — to hurry
  3. cold — not warm
  4. field — for sport
  5. cold — an illness
  6. straw — dry grass
  7. field — a subject
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. board — to get on
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. rush — hurry
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. rush — a thrill
  15. board — a committee
  16. board — a flat piece
  17. bat — the animal
  18. field — farmland

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