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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. Did you ________________ the meat?
  2. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  6. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  7. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  10. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  11. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  12. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  13. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  21. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  22. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  24. He was locked up in a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. season — to add flavour
  2. straw — a straw man
  3. tear — from crying
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. wave — of the sea
  6. season — of the year
  7. cap — a hat
  8. tear — from crying
  9. cap — of ice
  10. cap — a lid
  11. season — in sport
  12. wave — a sudden rise
  13. straw — to clutch at straws
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. field — farmland
  16. cell — a phone
  17. tear — to rip
  18. field — a subject
  19. field — for sport
  20. snap — to click
  21. wave — with your hand
  22. straw — dry grass
  23. cell — in biology
  24. cell — in a prison

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