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

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  4. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  5. Have you met the new head ________________?
  6. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  7. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  8. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  9. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  10. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  11. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  12. There's no middle ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  17. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  20. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  21. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  22. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  23. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  24. Would you like some apricot ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. chest — of your body
  3. prune — to trim
  4. jam — in traffic
  5. coach — a trainer
  6. chest — a box
  7. ground — the earth
  8. coach — a trainer
  9. prune — the fruit
  10. prune — to trim
  11. chest — of your body
  12. ground — a position
  13. cold — an illness
  14. jam — a tight spot
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. coach — pulled by horses
  17. face — to point toward
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. ground — crushed
  20. face — part of the head
  21. face — to confront
  22. straw — a straw man
  23. straw — to clutch at straws
  24. jam — to spread on bread

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