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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. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  2. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  3. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  11. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  16. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  21. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  24. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. file — a tool
  2. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  3. wave — with your hand
  4. kid — to tease
  5. file — a line of people
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. wave — of the sea
  11. wave — a sudden rise
  12. mine — for digging
  13. file — a document
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. straw — to clutch at straws
  16. object — an aim
  17. hand — in cards
  18. mine — an explosive
  19. cold — an illness
  20. object — to protest
  21. object — a thing
  22. cold — not warm
  23. hand — help
  24. kid — child

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