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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. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  4. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  5. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  8. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  9. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  10. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  11. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  12. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  13. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  14. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  18. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  19. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  20. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — a straw man
  2. cold — not warm
  3. cell — a phone
  4. patient — calm and waiting
  5. patient — a sick person
  6. land — to come down
  7. pit — in a race
  8. scale — in music
  9. pit — a fruit stone
  10. pit — a hole
  11. bowl — a football final
  12. land — ground
  13. patient — a sick person
  14. bowl — a dish
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. straw — to clutch at straws
  18. scale — size or range
  19. bowl — to roll
  20. scale — for weighing
  21. cold — an illness
  22. cell — in biology
  23. land — a country
  24. straw — dry grass

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