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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. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  2. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  5. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  12. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  17. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  20. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  21. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  22. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  23. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. lean — to bend
  2. staff — employees
  3. wind — moving air
  4. ruler — a monarch
  5. bark — a dog's sound
  6. cold — not warm
  7. lean — thin
  8. wind — moving air
  9. staff — a stick
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. hand — help
  12. ruler — for measuring
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. ruler — for measuring
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. bark — of a tree
  17. bark — to shout
  18. bat — the animal
  19. lean — to rest against
  20. staff — employees
  21. wind — to turn a key
  22. hand — in cards
  23. hand — part of the body
  24. cold — an illness

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