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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. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  2. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. I'll be taking the ________________.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  17. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  18. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  19. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  20. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  21. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  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. straw — to clutch at straws
  2. straw — dry grass
  3. chest — of your body
  4. field — for sport
  5. cold — not warm
  6. tube — a container
  7. field — a subject
  8. chest — of your body
  9. file — a tool
  10. chest — a box
  11. file — a line of people
  12. pit — a hole
  13. file — a document
  14. tube — the underground
  15. field — farmland
  16. wake — to stop sleeping
  17. pit — in a race
  18. pit — a fruit stone
  19. wake — before a funeral
  20. wake — a trail
  21. tube — in a tire
  22. cold — an illness
  23. straw — a straw man
  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