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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. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  5. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  10. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  11. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  15. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  20. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  21. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  22. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  23. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  24. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. spring — the season
  4. straw — dry grass
  5. band — a music group
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. bass — low music
  8. field — farmland
  9. straw — a straw man
  10. current — of water
  11. current — happening now
  12. field — for sport
  13. field — a subject
  14. bass — the fish
  15. band — a ring
  16. cold — an illness
  17. spring — of water
  18. cold — not warm
  19. current — electric
  20. band — a rubber band
  21. spring — a coil
  22. bass — the instrument
  23. mate — to breed
  24. mate — a friend

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