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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. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  2. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  3. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  4. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. False peace will not ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  13. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  14. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  15. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  16. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  22. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  23. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. firm — steady
  2. last — final
  3. firm — decided
  4. last — finally
  5. hand — help
  6. rest — what's left
  7. file — a line of people
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. last — to go on
  10. cold — not warm
  11. file — a document
  12. bark — to shout
  13. straw — a straw man
  14. bark — of a tree
  15. hand — in cards
  16. firm — a company
  17. cold — an illness
  18. rest — what's left
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. file — a tool
  21. bark — a dog's sound
  22. straw — dry grass
  23. rest — a break
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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