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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 116 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. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  2. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  3. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  4. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  8. He is an ace ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  13. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  14. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  20. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  21. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  22. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. patient — a sick person
  3. dip — a sauce
  4. straw — dry grass
  5. spring — the season
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. prune — to trim
  8. pitcher — in baseball
  9. cold — not warm
  10. dip — to sink
  11. spring — a coil
  12. kid — to tease
  13. pitcher — a jug
  14. prune — the fruit
  15. spring — of water
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. kid — child
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. patient — a sick person
  20. dip — to dunk
  21. patient — calm and waiting
  22. prune — to trim
  23. cold — an illness
  24. straw — a straw man

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