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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. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  2. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  3. It's one o'clock ________________.
  4. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  5. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  6. My father caught me by the ________________.
  7. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  8. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  14. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  15. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  16. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  17. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. He was locked up in a ________________.
  20. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  21. David sat on the ________________.
  22. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  23. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — clever
  2. track — to keep track
  3. sharp — exactly
  4. swing — music
  5. track — a path
  6. arm — part of the body
  7. board — to get on
  8. cell — a phone
  9. cold — an illness
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. cold — not warm
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. straw — to clutch at straws
  14. board — a flat piece
  15. sharp — with an edge
  16. arm — a part of something
  17. track — a song
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. cell — in a prison
  20. arm — part of the body
  21. swing — to play on
  22. board — a committee
  23. swing — in golf
  24. cell — in biology

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