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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: straw · cold · tear · mouse · degree · fall

  1. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  11. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  12. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  17. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  18. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — dry grass
  2. degree — an amount
  3. straw — to clutch at straws
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. fall — to drop
  6. cold — not warm
  7. tear — to rip
  8. straw — a straw man
  9. degree — temperature
  10. mouse — the animal
  11. fall — to drop
  12. fall — the season
  13. tear — from crying
  14. degree — from a university
  15. cold — an illness
  16. mouse — for a computer
  17. tear — from crying
  18. mouse — the animal

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