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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. It's one o'clock ________________.
  2. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  5. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. The ________________ took off on time.
  9. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  10. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  11. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  14. False peace will not ________________.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  20. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — exactly
  2. wind — moving air
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. dip — a sauce
  5. wind — moving air
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. plane — an aircraft
  9. sharp — clever
  10. dip — to dunk
  11. last — final
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. sharp — with an edge
  14. last — to go on
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. plane — a tool
  17. last — finally
  18. cold — not warm
  19. plane — in geometry
  20. dip — to sink
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. bat — the animal
  23. cold — an illness
  24. straw — a straw man

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