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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 120 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. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  2. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  5. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  8. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  9. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  10. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  11. That must've been a ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  14. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  15. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  16. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  17. Where did you ________________ them?
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  22. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. kick — in football
  2. mug — a face
  3. capital — money
  4. rush — hurry
  5. rush — to hurry
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. row — a line
  8. mug — a cup
  9. straw — dry grass
  10. patient — a sick person
  11. rush — a thrill
  12. cold — not warm
  13. kick — a thrill
  14. row — to paddle
  15. patient — calm and waiting
  16. patient — a sick person
  17. mug — to rob
  18. cold — an illness
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. straw — to clutch at straws
  22. kick — with a leg
  23. capital — a city
  24. cold — the Cold War

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