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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 ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  2. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  3. What do you think of the new ________________?
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  7. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. He is an ace ________________.
  11. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  12. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  15. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  16. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  17. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  20. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  21. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  22. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  23. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  24. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. straw — dry grass
  3. cabinet — ministers
  4. file — a document
  5. cold — an illness
  6. degree — from a university
  7. wave — of the sea
  8. degree — temperature
  9. degree — an amount
  10. pitcher — in baseball
  11. track — to keep track
  12. wave — with your hand
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. track — a path
  15. wave — a sudden rise
  16. track — a song
  17. straw — to clutch at straws
  18. cold — not warm
  19. pitcher — a jug
  20. file — a line of people
  21. file — a tool
  22. cabinet — a cupboard
  23. cabinet — ministers
  24. straw — a straw man

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