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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. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  2. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  3. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  4. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  7. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  8. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  9. The light ________________ burned out.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  12. I've got to change the light ________________.
  13. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. False peace will not ________________.
  20. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  23. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. staff — employees
  2. last — final
  3. straw — a straw man
  4. bulb — of a plant
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. lean — to bend
  7. wind — to turn a key
  8. staff — a stick
  9. bulb — for light
  10. cold — not warm
  11. staff — employees
  12. bulb — for light
  13. wind — moving air
  14. hand — help
  15. lean — to rest against
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. cold — an illness
  19. last — to go on
  20. wind — moving air
  21. hand — in cards
  22. lean — thin
  23. hand — part of the body
  24. last — finally

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