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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. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  2. I can't ________________ this cold.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  19. I'll be taking the ________________.
  20. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  21. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  22. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.

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

Answer key

  1. mouse — the animal
  2. stand — to bear
  3. cold — an illness
  4. tear — from crying
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. clip — to cut
  7. kid — child
  8. tube — a container
  9. kid — to tease
  10. clip — a video
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. cold — not warm
  13. tear — from crying
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. tear — to rip
  16. stand — for spectators
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. tube — in a tire
  19. tube — the underground
  20. mouse — the animal
  21. mouse — for a computer
  22. straw — dry grass
  23. clip — for paper
  24. stand — on your feet

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