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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 116 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. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  2. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  3. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  10. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  16. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  19. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  20. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  21. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  22. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  23. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  24. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pitch — a sales talk
  2. file — a line of people
  3. file — a document
  4. cell — a phone
  5. lean — to bend
  6. cold — an illness
  7. file — a tool
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. pitch — a sports field
  10. fan — to cool the air
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. lean — thin
  13. cold — not warm
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. squash — to crush
  16. cell — in biology
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. squash — the sport
  19. lean — to rest against
  20. fan — a supporter
  21. fan — a supporter
  22. squash — the vegetable
  23. pitch — completely
  24. straw — dry grass

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