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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  4. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  5. She's very handy with a ________________.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  8. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  9. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  10. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  11. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  17. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  18. He works in a ________________ mill.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  21. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. He is an ace ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. prune — to trim
  4. straw — dry grass
  5. saw — the tool
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. saw — past of 'see'
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. straw — a straw man
  10. net — in sport
  11. net — after costs
  12. cold — not warm
  13. kid — child
  14. spring — of water
  15. spring — the season
  16. prune — to trim
  17. pitcher — a jug
  18. saw — the tool
  19. kid — to tease
  20. net — for catching
  21. prune — the fruit
  22. spring — a coil
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. pitcher — in baseball

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