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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 120 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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  13. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  14. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  15. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  16. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  17. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  18. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  23. False peace will not ________________.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. field — a subject
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. field — for sport
  8. snap — to speak sharply
  9. kid — child
  10. last — final
  11. shower — rain
  12. last — finally
  13. lean — thin
  14. straw — dry grass
  15. kid — to tease
  16. shower — to wash
  17. lean — to bend
  18. snap — to click
  19. field — farmland
  20. cold — not warm
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. lean — to rest against
  23. last — to go on
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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