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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. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  10. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  11. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  12. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  13. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  14. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  17. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. This piece is in a major ________________.
  23. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  24. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. mate — to breed
  3. snap — to click
  4. key — the most important part
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. cold — an illness
  7. mine — for digging
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. mine — belonging to me
  10. chair — a leader
  11. key — for a lock
  12. chair — a professorship
  13. toast — a drink to someone
  14. mate — a friend
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. snap — to snap out of it
  17. toast — bread
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. chair — to sit on
  20. cold — not warm
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. key — in music
  23. snap — to speak sharply
  24. toast — the most admired

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