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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. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  4. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  5. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. That must've been a ________________.
  9. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  13. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  14. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  15. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  23. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  24. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. cold — not warm
  3. straw — to clutch at straws
  4. mate — a friend
  5. wound — past of 'wind'
  6. spring — a coil
  7. cold — an illness
  8. rush — a thrill
  9. fork — to eat with
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. spring — the season
  12. fork — a garden tool
  13. rush — to hurry
  14. wind — to turn a key
  15. wound — an injury
  16. spring — of water
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. mate — to breed
  20. wound — an injury
  21. wind — moving air
  22. wind — moving air
  23. rush — hurry
  24. fork — in a road

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