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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. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  2. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  3. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  18. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  21. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. deal — a big deal
  2. wind — moving air
  3. wake — to stop sleeping
  4. cold — not warm
  5. current — electric
  6. wind — moving air
  7. spring — a coil
  8. kid — to tease
  9. spring — the season
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. cold — an illness
  12. deal — an agreement
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. spring — of water
  15. current — of water
  16. kid — child
  17. wake — a trail
  18. wake — before a funeral
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. current — happening now
  21. deal — to handle
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. straw — dry grass
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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