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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. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  4. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  11. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  12. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  13. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  16. He is an ace ________________.
  17. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  22. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  23. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  24. Fill up this ________________ with water.

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

Answer key

  1. track — to keep track
  2. tear — from crying
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. fall — to drop
  5. spring — of water
  6. spring — the season
  7. tear — to rip
  8. kid — to tease
  9. spring — a coil
  10. track — a path
  11. patient — a sick person
  12. fall — to drop
  13. tear — from crying
  14. kid — child
  15. patient — a sick person
  16. pitcher — in baseball
  17. track — a song
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. patient — calm and waiting
  22. fall — the season
  23. straw — dry grass
  24. pitcher — a jug

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