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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. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  2. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  3. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  8. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  9. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  10. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  19. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — to clutch at straws
  2. field — for sport
  3. shower — a meteor shower
  4. row — a line
  5. craft — boats
  6. field — a subject
  7. bass — the instrument
  8. staff — employees
  9. staff — employees
  10. bass — low music
  11. field — farmland
  12. craft — a handicraft
  13. row — to paddle
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. bass — the fish
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. craft — a skill
  18. shower — rain
  19. mine — belonging to me
  20. shower — to wash
  21. straw — dry grass
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. staff — a stick
  24. mine — for digging

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