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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. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  2. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  10. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  15. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  16. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  19. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  22. He was locked up in a ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — dry grass
  2. rest — what's left
  3. cold — an illness
  4. cell — a phone
  5. field — for sport
  6. field — farmland
  7. chest — of your body
  8. cold — not warm
  9. current — of water
  10. rest — what's left
  11. field — a subject
  12. chest — of your body
  13. capital — a city
  14. rest — a break
  15. straw — to clutch at straws
  16. capital — money
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. current — happening now
  19. cell — in biology
  20. chest — a box
  21. current — electric
  22. cell — in a prison
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. straw — a straw man

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