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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. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  4. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  5. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  6. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  7. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  8. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  20. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. staff — employees
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. can — a tin
  4. straw — a straw man
  5. root — of a plant
  6. staff — a stick
  7. can — to be able to
  8. straw — to clutch at straws
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. staff — employees
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. bat — the animal
  13. cold — an illness
  14. hand — in cards
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. can — a tin
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. hand — help
  19. root — the cause
  20. file — a line of people
  21. cold — not warm
  22. root — of a word
  23. file — a tool
  24. file — a document

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