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

Word bank: cold · bat · kid · pound · foot · straw · bay · season

  1. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  2. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  7. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. My mare is ________________ in color.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  16. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  17. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  18. Did you ________________ the meat?
  19. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  22. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  23. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. foot — a measure
  2. season — in sport
  3. kid — to tease
  4. pound — for dogs
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. season — of the year
  7. straw — a straw man
  8. cold — not warm
  9. bay — a horse colour
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. kid — child
  13. pound — a weight
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. bat — the animal
  16. bay — a part of the sea
  17. foot — the bottom
  18. season — to add flavour
  19. foot — part of the body
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. straw — to clutch at straws
  22. bay — to keep at bay
  23. pound — to hit hard
  24. cold — an illness

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