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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. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  4. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  5. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  6. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  7. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  8. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  9. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  10. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  11. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  12. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  13. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  14. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  17. David sat on the ________________.
  18. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  19. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  24. That must've been a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rush — hurry
  2. snap — to click
  3. snap — to snap out of it
  4. straw — to clutch at straws
  5. kick — with a leg
  6. rush — to hurry
  7. kick — in football
  8. straw — a straw man
  9. swing — in golf
  10. net — for catching
  11. kick — a thrill
  12. cap — of ice
  13. net — in sport
  14. net — after costs
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. file — a line of people
  17. swing — to play on
  18. cap — a lid
  19. cap — a hat
  20. file — a document
  21. file — a tool
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. swing — music
  24. rush — a thrill

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