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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 120 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 ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  3. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  10. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  11. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  17. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  18. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. march — music
  3. kid — child
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. wind — moving air
  9. mine — belonging to me
  10. march — the month
  11. march — the month
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. bank — for money
  14. mine — for digging
  15. file — a tool
  16. mine — an explosive
  17. bank — for money
  18. bank — of a river
  19. file — a document
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. file — a line of people
  22. bat — the animal
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. wind — moving air

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