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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 girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  7. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  8. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  9. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  10. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  14. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  15. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  18. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  19. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  20. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  21. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  22. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  23. There's no middle ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. ground — crushed
  3. snap — to snap out of it
  4. wound — an injury
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. row — to paddle
  7. mouse — the animal
  8. straw — a straw man
  9. spring — the season
  10. mouse — the animal
  11. cold — not warm
  12. cold — an illness
  13. snap — to click
  14. straw — dry grass
  15. straw — to clutch at straws
  16. spring — of water
  17. snap — to speak sharply
  18. wound — an injury
  19. wound — past of 'wind'
  20. ground — the earth
  21. spring — a coil
  22. mouse — for a computer
  23. ground — a position
  24. cold — the Cold War

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