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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. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  10. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  11. The ________________ market has crashed.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  15. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  16. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  17. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  18. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  19. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  20. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to snap out of it
  2. kid — child
  3. stock — a soup base
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. snap — to click
  6. cold — an illness
  7. land — to come down
  8. land — a country
  9. mine — for digging
  10. snap — to speak sharply
  11. stock — shares
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. cold — not warm
  14. stock — goods
  15. kid — to tease
  16. straw — dry grass
  17. land — ground
  18. race — the arms race
  19. mine — an explosive
  20. race — humankind
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. race — a contest
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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