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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 116 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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Word bank
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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: nail · straw · shower · spell · hide · field · game · cold

  1. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  2. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  3. The ________________ went through the wall.
  4. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. How do you ________________ your surname?
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  16. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  23. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — to clutch at straws
  2. hide — animal skin
  3. nail — for a hammer
  4. shower — rain
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. shower — to wash
  7. cold — not warm
  8. game — a match
  9. field — a subject
  10. spell — letters
  11. field — farmland
  12. nail — on a finger
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. spell — a short time
  15. game — a kind of play
  16. hide — to keep secret
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. field — for sport
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. nail — for a hammer
  21. cold — an illness
  22. spell — magic
  23. hide — to keep secret
  24. game — wild animals

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