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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 116 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 water is too ________________.
  2. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  3. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  6. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  7. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  8. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  9. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  10. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  11. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  12. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  13. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  16. She's very handy with a ________________.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  19. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  20. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  21. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  22. He works in a ________________ mill.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. fall — to drop
  3. straw — dry grass
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. race — the arms race
  6. scale — for weighing
  7. scale — in music
  8. saw — past of 'see'
  9. track — to keep track
  10. race — humankind
  11. content — happy
  12. track — a song
  13. fall — to drop
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. scale — size or range
  16. saw — the tool
  17. content — the amount
  18. track — a path
  19. race — a contest
  20. fall — the season
  21. straw — to clutch at straws
  22. saw — the tool
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. cold — an illness

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