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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. I can't ________________ this cold.
  3. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  4. He works in a ________________ mill.
  5. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. The ________________ took off on time.
  11. She's very handy with a ________________.
  12. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  13. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  14. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. stand — to bear
  3. saw — past of 'see'
  4. saw — the tool
  5. wound — past of 'wind'
  6. clip — to cut
  7. stand — for spectators
  8. wound — an injury
  9. clip — for paper
  10. plane — an aircraft
  11. saw — the tool
  12. plane — a tool
  13. plane — in geometry
  14. straw — dry grass
  15. cold — an illness
  16. present — there
  17. clip — a video
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. present — a gift
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. stand — on your feet
  22. wound — an injury
  23. present — the time now
  24. cold — the Cold War

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