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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 muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  9. She's very handy with a ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  15. We're on a ________________ here.
  16. Have you settled on a ________________?
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. He works in a ________________ mill.
  21. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  22. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.

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

Answer key

  1. track — a path
  2. file — a tool
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. spring — the season
  5. spring — of water
  6. roll — a cake
  7. cold — not warm
  8. date — on the calendar
  9. saw — the tool
  10. cold — an illness
  11. file — a line of people
  12. track — to keep track
  13. file — a document
  14. saw — past of 'see'
  15. roll — on a roll
  16. date — on the calendar
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. track — a song
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. saw — the tool
  21. straw — to clutch at straws
  22. date — the fruit
  23. spring — a coil
  24. roll — a list

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