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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. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  5. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  6. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  7. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  12. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  13. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  18. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  19. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  20. The ________________ went through the wall.
  21. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — a straw man
  2. vault — a safe
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. vault — an arched ceiling
  6. straw — dry grass
  7. file — a document
  8. capital — money
  9. vault — in gymnastics
  10. cold — an illness
  11. nail — for a hammer
  12. march — the month
  13. march — music
  14. wind — moving air
  15. wind — moving air
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. nail — on a finger
  18. file — a tool
  19. march — the month
  20. nail — for a hammer
  21. capital — a city
  22. file — a line of people
  23. straw — to clutch at straws
  24. cold — not warm

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