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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 goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  2. He was locked up in a ________________.
  3. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  12. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  13. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  16. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  17. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  18. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  19. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  22. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — dry grass
  2. cell — in a prison
  3. cell — a phone
  4. wound — an injury
  5. mark — to pay attention
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. wound — past of 'wind'
  8. file — a line of people
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. file — a document
  11. fall — the season
  12. mark — a grade
  13. mark — a trace
  14. cold — not warm
  15. fall — to drop
  16. wound — an injury
  17. fall — to drop
  18. cell — in biology
  19. kick — with a leg
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. kick — in football
  22. kick — a thrill
  23. file — a tool
  24. cold — an illness

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