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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 information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  6. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  7. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  8. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  9. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  10. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  11. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  12. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  13. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  17. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  18. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  19. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  20. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  23. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. file — a document
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. row — a line
  4. cold — an illness
  5. jam — to spread on bread
  6. rest — a break
  7. rest — what's left
  8. jam — in traffic
  9. file — a line of people
  10. snap — to snap out of it
  11. row — to paddle
  12. jam — a tight spot
  13. row — a quarrel
  14. file — a tool
  15. cold — not warm
  16. shower — a meteor shower
  17. straw — to clutch at straws
  18. snap — to speak sharply
  19. straw — dry grass
  20. snap — to click
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. shower — to wash
  23. rest — what's left
  24. shower — rain

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