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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. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  4. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  5. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  15. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  18. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  21. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  22. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — to clutch at straws
  2. kid — to tease
  3. track — to keep track
  4. straw — dry grass
  5. wake — a trail
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. game — a match
  8. kid — child
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. net — after costs
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. shower — to wash
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. wake — to stop sleeping
  15. wake — before a funeral
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. track — a path
  18. net — in sport
  19. cold — not warm
  20. net — for catching
  21. track — a song
  22. shower — rain
  23. cold — an illness
  24. game — wild animals

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