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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. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  4. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  7. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  22. That was a fun ________________.
  23. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — dry grass
  2. cold — not warm
  3. foot — part of the body
  4. hide — to keep secret
  5. cold — an illness
  6. track — to keep track
  7. track — a song
  8. capital — a city
  9. spring — of water
  10. spring — the season
  11. hide — animal skin
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. game — wild animals
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. foot — the bottom
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. foot — a measure
  18. capital — money
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. hide — to keep secret
  22. game — a match
  23. track — a path
  24. spring — a coil

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