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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. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  4. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  7. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. The ball is in your ________________.
  14. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  15. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. I'll be taking the ________________.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  23. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  24. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. wind — moving air
  3. straw — dry grass
  4. court — of law
  5. chest — a box
  6. bear — the animal
  7. prune — to trim
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. chest — of your body
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. chest — of your body
  13. court — for sport
  14. tube — a container
  15. bear — to put up with
  16. cold — an illness
  17. wind — moving air
  18. tube — the underground
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. prune — to trim
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. bear — the animal
  23. tube — in a tire
  24. court — of a king

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