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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. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  2. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  4. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  7. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  8. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  9. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  10. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  11. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  12. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. When was this ________________ built?
  17. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  18. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  19. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  20. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. wind — moving air
  3. straw — dry grass
  4. straw — to clutch at straws
  5. file — a tool
  6. temple — a place of worship
  7. scale — for weighing
  8. spring — of water
  9. pit — a hole
  10. scale — size or range
  11. pit — in a race
  12. pit — a fruit stone
  13. file — a document
  14. leaves — of a tree
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. temple — a place of worship
  17. wind — to turn a key
  18. leaves — to go away
  19. scale — in music
  20. spring — the season
  21. file — a line of people
  22. leaves — lets stay
  23. spring — a coil
  24. temple — side of the head

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