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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. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  3. There's no middle ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  10. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  11. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  12. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. It's one o'clock ________________.
  16. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  19. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  20. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  23. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  24. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. sharp — clever
  3. ground — a position
  4. cold — an illness
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. ground — crushed
  8. game — a match
  9. fall — to drop
  10. straw — a straw man
  11. land — a country
  12. fall — the season
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. land — ground
  15. sharp — exactly
  16. straw — dry grass
  17. land — to come down
  18. sharp — with an edge
  19. ground — the earth
  20. fall — to drop
  21. cold — not warm
  22. deal — an agreement
  23. deal — to handle
  24. deal — a big deal

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