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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 didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  8. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  9. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  15. I'll be taking the ________________.
  16. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  19. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  20. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — to stop sleeping
  2. cold — an illness
  3. clip — to cut
  4. straw — a straw man
  5. hand — help
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. wake — a trail
  8. tube — in a tire
  9. stem — to come from
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. hand — in cards
  12. stem — a stem cell
  13. clip — a video
  14. rule — a law
  15. tube — the underground
  16. tube — a container
  17. clip — for paper
  18. stem — of a plant
  19. wake — before a funeral
  20. rule — to rule out
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. rule — government
  23. cold — not warm
  24. hand — part of the body

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