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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. She's very handy with a ________________.
  2. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  8. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  9. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  12. He works in a ________________ mill.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. Did you ________________ the button?
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  17. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. That was a fun ________________.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  22. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  23. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  24. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.

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

Answer key

  1. saw — the tool
  2. chest — a box
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. chest — of your body
  5. game — wild animals
  6. cold — an illness
  7. lean — to rest against
  8. bear — the animal
  9. press — a publisher
  10. cold — not warm
  11. saw — past of 'see'
  12. saw — the tool
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. press — to push
  15. chest — of your body
  16. bear — the animal
  17. lean — thin
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. game — a match
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. bear — to put up with
  22. straw — a straw man
  23. lean — to bend
  24. press — newspapers

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