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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. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  2. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  3. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  10. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  11. Did you ________________ the meat?
  12. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  21. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  22. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — dry grass
  2. lie — to recline
  3. mine — belonging to me
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. craft — a skill
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. season — of the year
  8. file — a document
  9. file — a line of people
  10. craft — a handicraft
  11. season — to add flavour
  12. lie — an untruth
  13. degree — temperature
  14. mine — for digging
  15. cold — an illness
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. degree — from a university
  18. degree — an amount
  19. file — a tool
  20. lie — an untruth
  21. season — in sport
  22. straw — a straw man
  23. cold — not warm
  24. craft — boats

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