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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 always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  2. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  3. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  4. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  5. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  6. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  11. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  14. He is an ace ________________.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  23. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — a straw man
  2. bear — the animal
  3. bear — the animal
  4. shower — rain
  5. pound — to hit hard
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. spring — the season
  8. cold — an illness
  9. shower — to wash
  10. pound — for dogs
  11. spring — of water
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. march — the month
  14. pitcher — in baseball
  15. spring — a coil
  16. pound — a weight
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. pitcher — a jug
  19. cold — not warm
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. march — the month
  22. straw — to clutch at straws
  23. bear — to put up with
  24. march — music

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