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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  3. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  4. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  8. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  11. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  12. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  17. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  18. I can't ________________ this cold.
  19. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  20. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  21. David sat on the ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  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 — not warm
  2. straw — dry grass
  3. leaves — lets stay
  4. straw — a straw man
  5. bat — the animal
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. stick — to attach or keep to
  8. leaves — to go away
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. tear — from crying
  11. stick — a piece of wood
  12. stand — on your feet
  13. tear — to rip
  14. swing — music
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. swing — in golf
  17. leaves — of a tree
  18. stand — to bear
  19. stick — a piece of wood
  20. tear — from crying
  21. swing — to play on
  22. cold — an illness
  23. stand — for spectators
  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