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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. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  6. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  9. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  12. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  15. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  22. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  23. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. kid — to tease
  3. file — a line of people
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. prune — to trim
  6. ruler — a monarch
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. pound — to hit hard
  9. fall — the season
  10. kid — child
  11. pound — a weight
  12. file — a document
  13. file — a tool
  14. prune — to trim
  15. pound — for dogs
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. fall — to drop
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. ruler — for measuring
  22. ruler — for measuring
  23. fall — to drop
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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