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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 giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  2. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  7. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  12. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  13. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  14. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  21. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  22. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  23. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. calf — a young animal
  2. race — the arms race
  3. cold — an illness
  4. cold — not warm
  5. clip — a video
  6. race — humankind
  7. court — of a king
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. file — a tool
  11. straw — a straw man
  12. race — a contest
  13. calf — a young animal
  14. fall — to drop
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. clip — for paper
  17. clip — to cut
  18. court — for sport
  19. file — a line of people
  20. fall — the season
  21. court — of law
  22. fall — to drop
  23. calf — of the leg
  24. file — a document

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