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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  4. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  7. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  8. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  9. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  10. David sat on the ________________.
  11. Have you found your soul ________________?
  12. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  13. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  18. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  19. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  20. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. field — farmland
  3. object — to protest
  4. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. snap — to speak sharply
  7. swing — music
  8. mate — a friend
  9. snap — to click
  10. swing — to play on
  11. mate — a partner
  12. kid — to tease
  13. straw — a straw man
  14. field — a subject
  15. swing — in golf
  16. kid — child
  17. straw — to clutch at straws
  18. mate — to breed
  19. object — a thing
  20. snap — to snap out of it
  21. cold — not warm
  22. field — for sport
  23. object — an aim
  24. cold — the Cold War

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