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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. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  2. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  5. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  8. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  9. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  10. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  13. Did you ________________ the meat?
  14. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  15. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  22. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  23. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  24. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — to clutch at straws
  2. wind — moving air
  3. wind — moving air
  4. straw — dry grass
  5. snap — to click
  6. kid — child
  7. scale — size or range
  8. snap — to speak sharply
  9. scale — in music
  10. wind — to turn a key
  11. kid — to tease
  12. snap — to snap out of it
  13. season — to add flavour
  14. season — of the year
  15. tear — from crying
  16. chest — of your body
  17. scale — for weighing
  18. chest — a box
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. chest — of your body
  22. tear — from crying
  23. tear — to rip
  24. season — in sport

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