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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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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: straw · plane · kid · sharp · band · firm · cold · swing

  1. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  2. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  3. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  4. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  5. David sat on the ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  8. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  9. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  13. It's one o'clock ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  18. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  19. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  20. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  21. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  24. The ________________ took off on time.

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

Answer key

  1. firm — steady
  2. sharp — clever
  3. straw — dry grass
  4. straw — to clutch at straws
  5. swing — to play on
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. firm — a company
  8. straw — a straw man
  9. band — a ring
  10. cold — an illness
  11. kid — child
  12. band — a music group
  13. sharp — exactly
  14. cold — not warm
  15. plane — a tool
  16. kid — to tease
  17. band — a rubber band
  18. sharp — with an edge
  19. plane — in geometry
  20. firm — decided
  21. swing — in golf
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. swing — music
  24. plane — an aircraft

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