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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. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. Don't do anything ________________.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  9. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  16. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  20. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  23. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  24. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — a straw man
  2. clip — for paper
  3. rash — hasty
  4. field — farmland
  5. rash — a series
  6. cold — an illness
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. board — to get on
  9. board — a committee
  10. shower — rain
  11. field — a subject
  12. clip — a video
  13. rash — on the skin
  14. clip — to cut
  15. shower — to wash
  16. straw — dry grass
  17. cold — not warm
  18. field — for sport
  19. staff — a stick
  20. staff — employees
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. board — a flat piece
  23. straw — to clutch at straws
  24. staff — employees

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