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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. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  2. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  3. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. Have you met the new head ________________?
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  9. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  13. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  14. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  15. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  23. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  24. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — to clutch at straws
  2. foot — a measure
  3. cap — a hat
  4. game — a match
  5. chest — a box
  6. coach — a trainer
  7. tear — from crying
  8. foot — part of the body
  9. cap — of ice
  10. game — wild animals
  11. field — for sport
  12. cap — a lid
  13. coach — pulled by horses
  14. straw — dry grass
  15. coach — a trainer
  16. chest — of your body
  17. game — a kind of play
  18. field — farmland
  19. tear — to rip
  20. chest — of your body
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. tear — from crying
  23. foot — the bottom
  24. field — a subject

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