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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. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  9. That was ________________ to happen.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. He was locked up in a ________________.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  19. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  20. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  21. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  22. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  23. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  24. Don't do anything ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hide — to keep secret
  2. kid — to tease
  3. hide — to keep secret
  4. capital — money
  5. hide — animal skin
  6. cell — a phone
  7. kid — child
  8. bound — tied together
  9. bound — certain
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. cell — in a prison
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. spring — of water
  14. spring — the season
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. capital — a city
  17. spring — a coil
  18. bound — obliged
  19. straw — dry grass
  20. cell — in biology
  21. rash — a series
  22. rash — on the skin
  23. straw — a straw man
  24. rash — hasty

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