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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: cold · rule · straw · fan · stem · tear

  1. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  7. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  8. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  9. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  10. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  11. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  14. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  15. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  16. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  17. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  18. 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. fan — to cool the air
  2. straw — to clutch at straws
  3. cold — not warm
  4. tear — from crying
  5. cold — an illness
  6. rule — to rule out
  7. straw — a straw man
  8. stem — to come from
  9. rule — a law
  10. fan — a supporter
  11. tear — to rip
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. stem — of a plant
  14. rule — government
  15. tear — from crying
  16. fan — a supporter
  17. stem — a stem cell
  18. 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