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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. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  6. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  7. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  18. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  21. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  22. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  23. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  24. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.

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 — a subject
  3. pound — for dogs
  4. field — for sport
  5. band — a ring
  6. wake — a trail
  7. straw — a straw man
  8. cold — not warm
  9. track — to keep track
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. field — farmland
  12. track — a song
  13. tear — from crying
  14. pound — a weight
  15. tear — to rip
  16. cold — an illness
  17. track — a path
  18. band — a rubber band
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. wake — before a funeral
  21. pound — to hit hard
  22. band — a music group
  23. wake — to stop sleeping
  24. tear — from crying

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